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191  3oyce   - 


V.l 


^.ncl   thf^ 


Southern  Branch 
of  the 

University  of  California 

Los  Angeles 


Form  L  1 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


NOV  §4  192? 


•  t 


DETERIORATION 
A^a> 

THE  ELEVATION  OF  MAN 

THROUGH 

KACE  EDUCATION. 

BY 

SAMUEL    ROYCE. 

TKK  SACREDNESS   OF   HUMAM    LIPE   INCREASES   WITH   CTVILIZATIOM. 

'  /"'  ao 

IN  TWO  VOLUMES. 

VOL.   L 

THIRD  EDITION,  REVISED  AND  ENLARGED. 


BOSTON : 

LEE    &    SHEPARD,    PUBLISHERS. 

1880. 


O^t.   /3o  2^ 


COPYRIGHT,    1877,    ^' 

SAMUEL    ROYCE. 


V.  I 


DEDICATED  TO 

MRS.    ELIZABETH   THOMPSON, 

THE  PATRIOT  AND   PHILANTHROPIST, 

WHO   DEVOTES   HER  ENERGIES   TO  THE   ELEVATION 

OF  THE  MASSES    THROUGH    INDUSTRIAL   EDUCATION,   AND   LABORS 

FOR    THE     IMPROVEMENT     OF    THE    CHARACTER   OF 

THE     MEN     AND     WOMEN     OF     AMERICA 

THROUGH  THE  KINDERGARTEN, 

BY  THE   AUTHOR. 


PREFACE; 

OB, 

LETTER    OF    INTRODUCTION. 

My  Child  : — Amid  the  severe  pressure  of  daily 
labors  and  cares  I  have  tended  you.  Under  depri- 
vation and  humihation  I  had  but  a  cheerful  coun- 
tenance for  you.  Many  a  long  winter's  n-ight  I 
have  watched  over  you,  nursed  and  taught  you  un- 
til the  sun  rose,  and  my  weary  head  without  repose 
entered  upon  the  struggle  of  the  day.  It  is  time 
you  go  forth  and  stammer  your  lesson  to  the  world. 
Your  dress  is  simple,  for  service  and  not  for  parade, 
but  your  armor  shall  make  you  strong  in  battle. 

There  is  no  loss  of  force.  The  life  and  spirit  of 
my  sweet  little  Julia,  which  floated  away  from  her 
Avhile  I  attended  to  you  and  your  wants,  will  be  with 
you  ;  and  however  much  you  may  be  abused,  never 
mind,  if  only  thereby  other  children  will  be  treated 
more  tenderly,  and  will  be  kept  alive  and  be  made 
happy. 

The  perishing  masses  are  the  import  of  thy  mes- 
sage ;  nothing  can  save  them  but  an  Education 
aiming  in  all  its  parts  at  the  preservation  of  the 
individual  and  the  race.  Nothing  but  the  solidar- 
ity of  mankind,   or,   in   more   homely  pbjase,  the 

V 


vi  PREFACE. 

feeling  of  mutual  responsibility,  can  give  stability 
to  society  tottering  to  its  very  base.  Want  almost 
general  can  only  be  allayed  by  industry  as  uni- 
versal. Home,  the  school  of  great  and  small, 
health  of  body  and  mind,  city  and  country,  in- 
stitutions, and  whatever  influences  the  well-be- 
ing of  individuals  and  States ;  the  jail,  the  hos- 
pital, the  battlefield,  the  shop  and  the  banking- 
house,  the  past  as  well  as  the  present,  whatever 
touches  man,  is  part  of  thy  message — be  brief,  but 
hide  nothing. 

Proclaim  the  true  spirit  and  principle  of  Educa- 
tion ;  when  you  will  have  done  that,  the  people 
will  know  the  rest,  as  Education  embraces  the  whole 
of  life,  and  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  rules 
would  leave  the  subject  as  incomplete  as  ever. 

When  your  message,  burdened  with  facts  and 
figures,  fatigues  the  listener,  retire  not  unwillingly 
to  the  shelf,  satisfied  that  the  solidity  of  thy  argu- 
ments will  secure  to  your  message  another  hearing. 

And  now,  child  of  my  riper  age,  of  many  labors 
and  anxious  hours,  I  trust  you  and  your  message 
to  justice  that  never  fails  in  the  end. 

May  success  attend  you,  not  for  my  sake,  nor  for 
your  sake,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  Education  of  the 
Race,  and  the  saving  of  the  masses  that   perish 

to-day. 

THE   AUTHOR. 


PREFACE   TO   THIRD    EDITION. 


New  York  City,  Novetnber,  1879. 

Twice  thou  hast  gone  forth  on  thy  mission.  If 
thy  work  was  arduous,  still  it  was  not  wholly  with- 
out success.  For  since  thy  message  has  been  de- 
livered, some  of  the  most  baneful  prejudices  have 
lost  some  of  their  hold  upon  the  educational  world  ; 
industrial  Education  has  received  more  proper  atten- 
tion, and  the  dwellings  of  the  people  and  their  san- 
itary condition  have  been  seriously  looked  into.  A 
third  time  thou  art  sent  forth  to  plead  for  the  per- 
ishing masses  ;  stand  by  them  and  suffer  with  them, 
if  there  be  need,  but  falter  not,  knowing  that  thine 

is  the  victory. 

The  Author. 


CONTENTS  TO  VOLUME  I. 


PART  I. 

RACE  DETERIORATION. 

Symptoms  and  Causes  of  Deterioration      .        .        .        .13 

Rate  of  Mortality 18 

Rate  of  Insanity 22 

Rate  of  Crime 29 

Blindness  and  Deaf-muteism 38 

Unfitness  for  Military  Service 39 

Factory  Population 41 

Consumption 42 

Scrofula 45 

Changes  of  Mortality  Rates 47 

General  Deterioration 48 

Pauperism 49 


Remedies    ..... 
Education  and  Race  Preservation 
Degenerated  Tribes    . 
Degeneracy  in  Tenement-houses 
The  Evolution  of  Education 


58 
62 

65 
66 

67 


PART  11. 

HEREDITY  AND  RACE  EDUCATION. 

Heredity 69 

Race  Education  Defined  .,.,...  76 
Race  and  Scholastic  Education  .  ,  .  .  .80 
Race  and  Scholastic  Education  Compared  .  .  .82 
Systems  of  Education        .......     90 

Race  and  Individual  Education 100 

Race  Education  Further  Expounded  ....  105 
Race  Education  and  Division  of  Labor      .         ^        .         .Hi 

Woman's  Work 112 

The  School  and  the  Home 115 


IX 


Contents. 


The  Development  of  Education 
Our  Civilization  and  Deterioration 
Education  and  Individualism    . 
Race  Education  and  Hygiene    . 


117 
119 
121 
124 


PART  III. 
KINDERGARTEN  AND  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION. 
Kinderg-;irten 133 

Education  and  Social  Science    .         .         .         •         .         .146 

Industrial  Education 152 

The  Progress  of  Industrial  Education        .         .         .  161 

Industrial  Education  in  the  United  States         .         .         .  170 

PART  IV. 
THE  PROGRESS  OF  CIVILIZATION. 
Trades  and  Tools  our  Civilizers 
First  Improvements  ..... 
Modern  Conveniences  and  Foods     . 
Progress  in  Cotton  and  Iron  Manufactures 
Progress  of  Manufactures  in  the  United  States 
Industry  and  general  Civilization 
Industry,  Science,  and  Education 
Industry,  its  Work  and  Cycles  . 
War  and  Army  Mortality  .... 
Mortality  in  Public  Institutions. 
Industry  as  a  Deteriorator.         .         .         , 
Suicide       ....... 

Social  Murder 

Supreme  Law  of  Humanity 
Slaughter-pen  Civilization 
Humanity  Suffering  ..... 
The  Sanctity  of  Human  Life 


PART  V. 
THE  PROGRESS  OF  EDUCATION. 
The  Progress  of  General  Eflucation  . 
Cost  of  Education  and  Crime    .... 
Does  our  Common  Education  Prevent  Crime  . 


185 
188 
196 
201 
203 
205 
206 
208 
222 
226 
229 
231 

235 
238 
241 
242 
248 


251 
261 
263 


Contents. 


XI 


Does  our  Common  Education  Prevent  Pauperism 

Intellectual  Pleasures 

Education  and  the  State    ..... 
Education  and  our  Financial  Crisis  . 

Eras  of  Civilization 

The  School  the  Miniature  of  the  World    . 
The  Period  of  Crime  and  of  Education 

Our  Wordy  Education 

Education  and  Industrial  Labor 

Race  Education  described         .... 

The  Education  of  the  old  Greeks 

The  Education  of  Massachusetts 

The  Demands  of  Race  Education 

Race  Education  and  a  Rational  Idealism  . 

The  Claims  of  Classical  and  Scientific  Education 

The  Proper  Employment  of  Time     . 

Men  and  Women,  and  their  Spheres. 

Industry,  Health,  Comfort,  and  Happiness 

The  Science  of  Things 

The  Cultivation  of  Altruism     . 

PART  VI. 

THE  PEOPLE  AND  THEIR  HOMES 

Home  the  Climate  of  Man 
Home  in  City  and  Country 
Home  and  Property  .... 
Manufacturing  in  Rural  Diitricts 
Commerce  and  Starvation  in  England 
The  City  the  Workman's  Ruin. 
Condition  of  Operatives  in  French  towns 
Condition  of  Operatives  in  English  towns 
Tenement  houses  in  New  York  City. 
Tenements  in  Boston  and  other  towns 
Tenement  house  Mortality  in  New  York  City 
Industrial  Building  Societies 
Degradation  of  Laborers  in  Cities     . 
Epidemics  from  Crowding 
Sins  and  Evils  of  Crowding 


263 
264 
265 
266 
269 
269 
270 
271 
272 
291 
292 
294 
295 
298 
303 
332 
334 
335 
335 
337 


348 
349 
352 
352 
354 
355 
358 
365 
369 
379 
384 
386 

392 
399 
401 


Xll 


Contents. 


Infant  Mortality  and  Crowding. 

Crime  and  Crowding 

Misleading  Averages 

Mortality  in  City  and  Country  . 

Cities  with  More  Deaths  than  Births 

Surplus  of  Births  in  City  and  Country 

Cholera  and  Density  of  Population  . 

Births  and  Deaths  in  London    . 

Infant  Mortality  in  New  York  City  and  in 

Table  of  Births,  Deaths,  Fertility,  &c. 

Vitality  in  City  and  Country 

Growth  of  Cities         .... 

Legislative  Restrictions  against  Crowding 

Vitality  in  its  Moral  Bearings   . 


the 


Country 


402 

404 
404 
405 
407 
407 
408 
408 
409 
410 
411 
412 

415 
418 


PART  VII. 

THE  SCOURGES  OF  HUMANITY. 

Drunkenness  Deteriorating  the  Race 
Drunkenness  and  Expectation  of  Life 
Drunkenn-ess  and  Rates  of  Insanity. 
Causes  and  Prevention  of  Drunkenness    . 
The  Virus  of  the  Social  Evil 
Spread  and  History  of  this  Poison     . 
Cause  and  Prevention  of  this  Evil 
Standing  Armies  Deteriorating  Nations     . 
Prisons      ....... 

Trade  Diseases  and  their  Preven-tion 
Employment  of  Children  in  Factories 
Our  Resources  and  our  Greed  . 
Crime  and  Education         .... 

Crime,  Pauperism,  and  Insanity  Increasing 
Ratio  of  Increase  and  Birth  Decreasing  . 
Blindness,  Mental  Disorders,  and  the  School 

Crime  and  Industry 

Moral  Basis  of  Education  .... 
Manufacturing  in  the  Country  . 
Crowding  and  Crime         .... 


424 
429 
430 
431 
437 
438 
444 
448 
448 
448 
458 
460 
461 
462 
468 

471 
472 

475 
476 

477 


EDUCATION: 

A    SOCIAL    STUDY 

VOLUME   I. 


The  nature,  function  and  importance  of  public  education 
under  the  po^uers,  possibilities,  dangers  and  responsibilities  of 
modern  civilization  are  as  yet  not  half  understood.  Six  dull 
hours  daily  passed  upon  school  benches  are  but  a  parody  upon 
Education,  whicJi  shotdd  be  as  real  and  fnultifarious  as  life  is; 
aye,  it  must  be  life  itself  lived  tinder  the  eye  of  the  State  and 
its  ministers,  who  are  to  fashion  our  outer  as  well  as  our 
inner  life,  the  one  by  rightly  starting  our  practical  activities, 
and  the  other  by  effectually  regulating  our  passions,  and  thus 
remove  the  double  source  of  human  woe,  outer  want  and  inner 
misery,  a  consummation  to  be  brought  about  by  the  co-opera- 
tion of  men  who  havj  before  their  eye  the  love  and  fear  of 
Cod  as  well  as  the  good  of  thtir  fellow  beings. 

New  York  City,  November,  1879. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Deterioration  is  the  foundation  of  our  work, 
which  we  bring  forward,  that  we  may  convince  men 
of  the  necessity  of  aiming  at  race  amehoration. 
Certainly,  the  gradual  descent  from  the  meridian 
of  life  to  natural  death  is  but  an  inevitable  process 
of  individual  deterioration,  and  when,  again,  whole 
species  and  genera  of  plants  and  animals  become 
extinct,  as  the  geological  strata  attest,  that  is 
general  deterioration.  The  whole  of  life,  therefore, 
is  a  constant  struggle  of  the  individual  and  the  race 
against  a  world  of  hostile  forces  ever  tending  to 
deteriorate  them. 

A  healthy  rural  population  crowding  into  un- 
wholesome city  quarters,  and  transmitting  to  an  en- 
feebled progeny  a  constitution  deteriorated  by  the 
conflux  of  adverse  circumstances  is  not  unworthy 
the  attention  of  men. 

The  removal  of  the  preventable  causes  of  deterio- 
ration becomes  the  more  urgent  in  this  country, 
where  a  comparatively  new  soil  and  a  foreign 
climate  conspire  against  the  exogenous  white 
race,  as  has  been  noticed  from  Buffon  down  to  our 
day,  and  is  patent  to  every  observer  from  the  lesser 
development  of  the  muscular  system,  the  narrow 
chest,  the  pale  face,  the  delicate  constitution,  the 


I  o  IN  TROD  UCTION. 

premature  dental  decay,  the  greater  frequency  of 
consumption,  especially  among  the  female  sex,  and 
the  small  fertility  even  of  foreign  born  women  after 
their  acclimatization. 

Society  and  the  uieatis  of  preventing  ever  present 
tnorbid  tendencies  from  settling  itito  abnormal  and 
anti-social  formations  must  be  the  chief  study  of  the 
future  teacher  in  our  normal  colleges. 

We  recognize  the  importance  of  the  study  of  man, 
but,  alas !  look  for  it  in  musty  chronicles  instead 
of  in  the  living  present  spread  out  before  us  like  a 
feast.  We  might  just  as  well  seek  the  key  to  the 
enigma  of  life  among  rattling  bones. 

What  a  world  of  thought  the  structure  of  a  pros- 
perous society  presents  to  us !  and  what  lessons  are 
to  be  compared  in  importance  to  those  the  morbid 
conditions  of  society  offer  us. 

The  application  of  physical,  mental  and  social 
hygiene  to  tJie pJiysical,  mental  and  social  degeneracy  as 
manifested  by  an  excessive  rate  of  mortality,  insanity, 
pauperism  and  crime  is  the  great  work  of  the 
teacher. 

This  truth  is  sure  of  finding  acceptance  at  last, 
as  we  are  beginning  to  be  oppressed  with  taxes  for 
the  erection  of  hospitals,  mad-houses,  jails,  poor 
houses,  asylums  for  the  blind,  the  deaf,  the  dumb, 
the  idiotic,  etc.,  etc.,  all  the  fruit  of  sin  or  our  indif- 
erence  for  man,  his  happiness,  or  misery. 

The  very  word  Education  in  our  day  suggests 
the  school,  studies,  hieroglyphics,  and  what  not. 
The  writer  of  this  work  sets  out  with  an  inquiry 
into  the  condition  of  the  people,  and  from  a  vast 


IN  TROD  UCTION.  1 1 

array  of  facts  relative  to  the  increase  of  the  rate  of 
mortality,  insanity  and  the  deepening  dye  of  crimi- 
nality comes  to  the  conclusion  that  the  human  race 
is  threatened  by  degenerating  tendencies. 

The  author  next  gives  a  rapid  sketch  of  the  opin- 
ions of  the  great  thinkers  of  the  world — past  as 
well  as  present — concerning  the  cardinal  principles 
of  Education,  and  proceeds  to  establish  his  own 
doctrine  of  Race  Education,  or  Hereditary  Culture. 
He  endeavors  to  prove  that  the  preservation  of  the 
human  race. is  the  primary  function  of  Education, 
He  shows  that  a  true  Education  must  be  organic 
and  of  a  nature  to  become  hereditary.  He  con- 
trasts the  proposed  Race  Education  with  our  pres- 
ent scholastic  tatooing.  He  sketches  the  history 
of  general  and  industrial  Education,  as  well  as  of 
civilization.  The  claims  of  classical  and  scientific 
Education  are  fully  examined.  The  necessity  of 
organizing  kindergartens  is  dwelt  upon ;  woman's 
work  in  society  and  civilization  is  shown,  and 
Education  exhibited  as  a  social  science.  Pauperism 
is  considered  as  the  great  deteriorator  of  the  race, 
which  must  be  combated  by  industrial  Education. 

The  homes  of  the  people  and  their  scourges  are 
considered.  The  social  problem  is  examined  in 
connection  with  aesthetic  culture  and  art  industrial 
Education,  and  its  true  nature  and  magnitude  are 
dwelt  upon,  and  the  danger  threatening  Society 
is  pointed  out. 

A  hollow  and  self-seeking  literary  foppery  fills 
the  heads,  empties  the  hearts,  and  weakens  the 
hands  of  men.  Work  is  the  coordination  of  all  the 
powers  of  man,  educating  them  all,  and  developing 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

in  him  the  capacity  and  the  will  to  serve  mankind 
efficiently.  The  world,  says  Francis  Bacon,  has 
grown  old  with  age,  and  goes  to  school  to  the  lo- 
quacious childhood  and  puerilities  of  the  boyish 
Greeks ;  this  is  trifling,  contemptible,  and  degrad- 
ing to  modern  civilization.  Their  science  is  but 
sophistry,  and  their  history  a  fable ;  all  idle,  fruit- 
less talk,  without  a  single  experiment  to  elevate  or 
assist  mankind.  It  is  like  the  countenance  of  a 
virgin  with  monsters  fastened  to  the  womb,  bring- 
ing forth  barking  questions  and  nothing  else.  Such 
is  antiquity,  in  the  words  of  the  great  Chancellor, 
and  such  is  the  Education  of  our  youths,  who 
should  be  trained  to  will  and  to  do  and  to  save 
a  perishing  race. 

Climate,  soil  and  mineral  resources,  or  the  country 
and  its  products,  determine  our  wants  and  our 
character  through  industry,  which  leagues  man  with 
nature,  and  individuals  with  nations,  making  them 
free,  rich,  and  powerful,  or  poor,  miserable  slaves. 
And  yet  while  the  masses  cry  for  bread,  instead  of 
educating  them  into  strong  and  active  men  who 
know  how  to  extract  wealth  from  earth,  water,  air, 
and  all  the  elements  and  forces,  we  train  them  into 
mocking-birds,  crazing  the  age  with  the  broken 
notes  of  sweet  songsters  dead  a  thousand  or  more 
years,  forgetting  that  the  harmony  of  the  soul 
springs  from  the  harmonies  of  life,  and  that  the 
lower  elements  are  the  soil  in  which  the  higher  get 
their  growth,  lessons  not  to  be  set  aside  in  an 
economic  age,  the  lawand  order  of  which  are  the 
evolution  of  moral  from  material  values. 


DETERIORATION 


THE  ELEVATION  OF  MAN. 


RACE   EDUCATION. 


PART    I. 


RACE  DETERIORATION. 

Writers  and  thinkers,  according  to  their  stand- 
point or  method  of  investigation,  base  their  sys- 
tems of  Education  upon  religious  or  philosophical 
principles,  as  God-likeness,  duty,  humanity,  useful- 
ness, happiness,  etc. 

Most  children  are  not  educated  at  all.  They  are 
simply  taught  the  three  R's.  Many  are  brought 
up  to  get  along  in  the  world,  no  matter  how  the 
world  gets  along ;  and  a  small  minority  is  taught  in 
schools  devoted  to  the  promotion  of  learning,  but 
regardless  to  the  advancement  of  humanity,  while 
denominational  schools  care  more  for  the  propaga- 
tion of  their  peculiar  tenets  than  for  anything  else  ; 
and  only  the  fewest  children  are  educated  upon 
anthropological  principles. 

Upon  a  careful  study  of  the  social  condition  of 

(13) 


14  Race  Deterioration. 

the  people,  we  venture  to  advance  the  principle 
that  the  general  tendency  of  human  deterioration 
must  be  counteracted  by  Race  Education  aiming 
directly  at  race  amelioration. 

Statistics  prove  that  a  deterioration  of  the  physi- 
cal, mental  and  moral  tone  of  mankind,  induced 
by  the  present  state  of  civilization,  is  undermining 
the  race. 

Many  Utopian  theories  have  been  advanced 
against  the  various  ills  of  society,  but  a  race  ame- 
liorating Education  alone  can  stop  humanity  in  its 
downward  career. 

Pauperism,  with  all  the  misery  and  barbarity  in- 
separable from  it ;  drunkenness,  crime  and  insanity, 
a  growing  morbidity,  leading  through  heredity  to 
race  deterioration,  and  a  fearful  infant  as  well  as 
adult  rate  of  mortality,  such  are  the  tendencies 
that  surround  us  on  all  sides,  and  must  be  com- 
bated by  Race  Education. 

Maintaining,  as  we  do,  that  the  one  great  aim 
of  Education  must  be  to  counteract  the  cause  of 
human  deterioration,  the  first  step  in  our  inquiry 
must  be  to  prove  the  actual  existence  of  such  fatal 
agencies.  Deterioration  is  contingent  on  our  pres- 
ent state  of  civilization,  as  labor,  especially  in  fac- 
tories, is  productive  of  metal,  mineral,  vegetable 
or  animal  dust  and  deleterious  gases,  all  favoring 
phthisis.     Not   infrequently  rank  poison,  such   as 


Race  Deterioration.  15 

copper,  lead,  arsenic,  phosphorus,  etc.,  have  to  be 
handled  and  are  absorbed  by  the  system.  Many 
manufacturing  processes  require  degrees  of  heat  or 
moisture  varying  from  what  the  human  body  can 
well  bear;  and  often  the  posture  of  the  laborer, 
attending  one  or  another  technical  operation,  inter- 
feres with  the  free  action  of  one  or  more  organs. 
Mines,  barracks,  damp  and  dark  tenements,  filthy 
lanes,  crowded  towns  and  factories,  penitentiaries, 
want,  commercial  crises,  epidemics,  poverty,  misery, 
degradation,  drunkenness,  tobacco,  opium,  and  other 
influences  too  numerous  for  mentioning,  contribute 
to  this  deterioration. 

It  would  open  too  wide  a  field  for  discussion 
were  we  to  enter  upon  these  and  kindred  causes 
of  human  deterioration,  the  existence  of  which 
alone  concerns  us  here,  and  which  we  shall  prove 
by  the  rising  rate  of  mortality  as  well  as  of  insanity 
and  by  the  nature  of  crime. 

The  profound  Morel  says:  "My  conviction  is 
that  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  insane  are  of  a 
deteriorated  constitution,  suffering  from  a  long  line 
of  hereditary  degeneracy."  Everywhere,  the  same 
writer  continues,  insanity  increases,  so  does  gen- 
eral paralysis,  and  a  general  collapse  diminishes  the 
chances  of  curability.  Hysteria  and  hypochondria, 
often  accompanied  with  a  suicidal  mania  or  ten- 
dency,  are   becoming  alarmingly  common   among 


l6  Race  Deterioration. 

the  working  people  and  even  in  the  country.  The 
increase  of  misdemeanors,  crime  against  property, 
juvenile  criminality,  and  a  physically  degenerated 
community  that  has  not  men  enough  fit  for  the 
service,  are  incontrovertible  facts,  alarming  Euro- 
pean governments  and  engaging  their  most  earnest 
attention.  A  brigade  raised  among  the  weavers  in 
England  measured  mostly  less  than  five  feet.  At 
Spitalfields,  the  men  are  not  good  enough  for 
cannon  fodder.  "  The  constitution  of  these  de- 
generated men,"  says  Dr.  Mitchell,  "  does  rapidly 
descend  to  the  size  of  the  Lilliputians;  the  old  men 
among  them  surpass  in  strength  the  young  ones." 

At  Birmingham  the  men  cannot  be  said  to  be 
all  sick,  but  neither  are  they  all  well.  Among  613 
men,  only  238  were  approved  for  the  service.  The 
spinners  and  weavers  are  stunted  and  rickety.  So 
they  are  in  France  and  ever}'^where  else.  Upon 
investigation,  scrofula,  diseases  of  the  digestive  or- 
gans and  inflammatory  affections  of  the  eyes  are 
most  common.  Abortions  and  distortions  of  the  spi- 
nal column  are  almost  universal  among  the  working 
people.  Often  the  children  manifest  an  early  arrest 
of  their  faculties;  they  learn  but  little,  and  even  of 
this  they  soon  lose  every  recollection.  Often  three 
to  four  years  are  not  sufficient  for  these  degenerates 
to  learn  a  little  reading  and  writing.  Their  lan- 
guage, their  morals,  their  conduct  are  all  low,  loose, 


Race  Deterioration.  17 

and  shameless.^  All  about  them  is  degenerate. 
Their  pale  physiognomies  are  mute,  hard,  showing 
nothing  but  resolution  to  persevere  in  evil.  These 
types  shock  us ;  and  well  they  may,  for  they  are 
personifications  of  the  degeneracy  of  our  race, 
caused  by  evils  which  are  more  fraught  with  danger 
for  modern  society  than  the  invasion  of  the  bar- 
barians was  for  ancient  Rome.  This  degeneracy 
might  be  stopped  if  society  would  consent  to  be 
anything  else  but  a  machine,  grinding  humanity, 
even  at  the  risk  of  conjuring  up  a  revolution,  to 
which  the  present  state  of  affairs  must  lead  sooner 
or  later. 

Having  described  the  symptoms  of  human  de- 
terioration among  the  English  working  people, 
Morel  proceeds  to  trace  the  same  symptoms  in 
France,  where  he  finds  the  masses  to  have  lost  the 
power  and  inclination  for  fixing  their  attention  upon 
subjects  of  a  higher  order.  Such  is  the  imbecility 
of  the  young  or  their  intellectual  faculties  that  the 
priest  has  to  defer  their  confirmation.  In  Rouen, 
as  in  most  manufacturing  cities  of  France,  the 
population  is  born  and  develops  under  conditions 
favorable  for  the  formation  of  phthisis,  cancer,  in- 
flammation of  the  kidneys  and  of  the  digestive 
organs,  hysteria,  chlorosis,  and  general,  progressive 
paralysis.  The  factory  children  are  puny,  their 
intelligence  torpid;  and  most  characteristic  is  the 


1 8  Rate  of  Mortality. 

degeneracy  which  slowly,  but  surely,  undermines  the 
health  of  body,  mind,  and  morals  of  the  population, 
visibly  nearing  a  fatal  transformation  into  a  fixed 
order  of  diseased  specimens  deviating  from  the  nor- 
mal type  of  humanity,  in  whom  the  average  intel- 
lectual life  is  low ;  and  the  double  characteristic  of 
their  moral  and  physical  shortcomings  is  reflected 
in  the  form  of  the  body  as  well  as  in  the  disposition 
of  the  mind.  In  the  absence  of  regenerating  meas- 
ures these  diseased  specimens  are  bound  to  form 
progressive  types  of  degeneration. 

Having  established  the  progressive  hereditary  de- 
terioration of  the  normal  type  of  humanity  among 
the  masses,  and  the  necessity  as  well  as  the  possi- 
bility of  a  complete  regeneration  by  the  removal 
of  fatal  causes,  from  the  labors  of  Morel,  we  pro- 
ceed to  the  still  higher  authority  of  a  million  statis- 
tical facts,  and  we  shall  set  out  with  those  of 
mortality  rates  as  best  studied,  and  the  sure  indi- 
cators of  the  vitality  and  the  ameliorating  or  dete- 
riorating tendencies  of  the  world. 

RATE   OF   MORTALITY. 

To  those  who  consider  mortality  rates  a  senti- 
mental question,  we  would  recall  the  words  of 
Europe's  greatest  statistician  :  "  The  people  them- 
selves are  by  far  the  most  important  capital  of  the 
State  ;  and  the  industrial  capital  stored  up  in  the 


Rate  of  Mortality.  19 

living  generation  surpasses  the  sum  of  all  other 
species  of  capital.  Every  injury  to  the  physical 
condition  of  the  people  is  a  loss  of  the  noblest 
capital  of  intelligence  and  physical  strength  of  the 
nation,  and  is  an  absolute  destruction  of  capital." 

Dr.  Engel,  to  whom  we  have  just  referred,  has 
established  the  average  age  at  death  in  Prussia  to 
have  been  as  follows  : 

1821-1830 28.39  years. 

1831-1840 28.34     " 

1841-1850 27.23      '* 

1851-1860 26.40     " 

In  Bavaria  lived,  after  the  first  year,  of 

1,003  born,  1841-1848  .  .  701   children. 

"      1848-1855  .  .  697 

"      1 85 5-1 862  .  .  681          " 

"      1 862-1869  .  .  673 

In  Basel,  Switzerland,  survived  the  first  year  of 

1,000  born,  1 821-1840  .  .  879  children. 

"        "      1841-1850  .  .  830         " 

"      I 860-1 86 5  .  .  802 

"      I 866-1 870  .  .  783 

Marc  d'Espine  shows  the  expectation  of  life  for 

Geneva  to  have  been  as  follows : 

1814-1836 47.29  years. 

1838-1845 43.62     " 

In  Wurtemberg  lived,  after  the  first  year,  of 
1,000  born,  1 846-1 8 56     .     .    697  children. 
"      1858-1866     .     .     646 
"      1 866-1 868     .     .     640 


20  Rate  of  Mortality. 

In  Muhlhausen  lived,  after  the  first  year,  of 

1,000  born,  1 830-1842     .     .    745  children. 
"      1860-1868     .     .     670 

In  France  lived,  after  the  first  year,  of 

1,000  born,  1840-1851     .     .     834  children. 
"      1851-1860    .    .    826 

Neison  shows  in  England  an  increased  mortality, 
notwithstanding  all  sanitary  improvements.  It  has 
been  as  follows  : 

1838-1844.  I  1845-1854. 

For  males,       2.27  per  ct.  pop.    For  males,     2.364  per  ct.  pop. 

"    females,  2.104  per  ct.  pop.  I    "    females,  2.209  P^r  ct.  pop. 

This  shows  an  increase  of  mortality  of  4. 141  per 
cent,  in  males,  and  4.8  per  cent,  in  the  female  por- 
tion of  the  population. 

W.  R.  Gray,  in  a  paper  published  in  the  Statisti- 
cal Journal  of  1842,  says  that  the  rate  of  mortality 
has  increased  in  England  since  1820  10  per  cent, 
and  probably  12.50  per  cent. 

Mr.  S.  Shattuck,  in  a  paper  on  the  vital  statistics 
of  Boston,  says :  "  The  average  value  of  life  is 
greater  now  than  during  the  last  century,  but  not 
as  great  as  it  was  twenty  years  ago.  It  was  at  its 
maximum  from  1811-1820,  and  since  that  time  it 
has  somewhat  decreased."  He  also  says:  *'  It  is  a 
melancholy  fact,  and  one  which  should  arrest  the 
attention  of  all,  that  43  per  cent.,  or  nearly  one- 


Rate  of  Mortality.  21 

half,  of  all  deaths  which  have  taken  place  within 
the  last  nine  years,  are  of  persons  under  nine  years 
of  age ;  and  the  proportional  mortality  at  this  age 
has  been  increasing." 

The  average  mortality  of  children  under  five 
years  in  1 866-1 870  amounted  in  the  city  of  New 
York  to  50.6  per  cent.,  and  but  4.4  per  cent,  of  all 
who  died  during  the  same  years  reached  seventy 
years.  Of  492,262  deaths  in  the  United  States  in 
1870,  7,986,  or  1.6  per  cent.,  were  of  old  age,  while 
69,896  died  of  consumption  alone.  Fully  a  hun- 
dred thousand  children  die  annually  in  this  country 
beyond  what  is  natural,  and  with  them  twice  as 
many  hearts  are  broken.  But  hearts  do  not  count 
in  this  matter-of-fact  world.  The  loss  of  labor 
during  gestation,  lactation  and  the  sickness  of  the 
child,  medical  attendance  and  funeral  expenses  foot 
up  at  least  to  one  hundred  dollars  in  each  case, 
and  in  the  aggregate  to  ten  millions  per  annum,  to 
a  class  generally  in  such  precarious  circumstances 
as  to  be  crushed  by  this  additional  burden  ;  and 
the  fifty  thousand  adults,  who  die  annually  purely 
from  degenerating  causes,  can  we  estimate  them 
individually  to  be  worth  less  than  a  thousand  dol- 
lars? Or  is  the  loss  of  the  State  in  the  citizen,  or 
of  the  wealth  of  the  country  in  the  producer,  and 
of  the  wife  and  the  children  in  the  husband  and 
father,  less  than   this  paltry  sum?     This,  then,  is 


22  Rate  of  Insanity. 

another  loss  of  fifty  millions  per  annum.  But  a 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  avoidable  deaths  mean 
two  millions  of  avoidable  cases  of  sickness  and 
their  cost ;  and,  worse  still,  so  much  sickness  means 
so  much  deterioration  of  the  race,  and  multitudes 
of  men,  women  and  children  decrepit  in  body  and 
soul,  fit  inmates  of  all  sorts  of  asylums  and  candi- 
dates for  early  graves — the  last  of  which  is  not  the 
worst  for  them. 

But  one  glance  more  at  the  most  degenerate. 
Among  the  most  destitute  at  Manchester,  of  21,000 
children  20,700  die  before  they  reach  five  years. 
In  Lille,  in  France,  94  per  cent,  of  the  same  sort 
of  children  die  before  this  age.  In  very  deterio- 
rating trades,  of  1,000  born,  but  15  reach  the  age 
of  fifty.  Without  entering  upon  details  and  causes 
beyond  the  proper  limit  of  our  inquiry,  we  have 
established  the  fact  of  a  rising  death  rate,  which 
proves  a  degeneracy  Education  must  protect  us 
against,  and  this  Race  Education  or  Hereditary 
Culture  only,  and  not  school  pedantry,  can  ac- 
complish. 

RATE   OF   INSANITY. 

The  daily  increasing  rate  of  insanity  is  another 
symptom  of  human  deterioration. 

Maudsley  says :  "  In  the  hard  struggle  for  exist- 
ence, men  of  inherited  weakness,  or  some  other 
debility,  break  down  in  madness.     Overcrowding 


Rate  of  Insanity.  23 

deteriorates  health,  favors  scrofula,  phthisis,  and 
faulty  nutrition,  all  of  which  open  the  way  to  in- 
sanity ;  and  whatever  deteriorates  mental  or  bodily 
health  may  lead  to  insanity  in  the  next  generation." 

Galton  says :  "  Social  agencies  are  unsuspectedly 
working  toward  the  degeneration  of  humanity,  and 
it  is  a  duty  we  owe  humanity  to  study  this  power 
and  to  combat  it  to  the  advantage  of  the  future 
inhabitants  of  the  earth." 

Griesinger,  a  great  authority  in  Germany  on  in- 
sanity, decidedly  believes  in  its  increasing  rate. 
He  says :  "  Misery  and  privation  are  its  chief 
causes.  Bad  nourishment,  hunger,  cold,  fatigue 
and  over-exertion,  which  of  necessity  accompany 
misery,  are  important  physical  causes  of  insanity, 
and,  hence,  of  race  deterioration.  Typhus,  inter- 
mittent fever,  cholera,  pneumonia,  acute  rheuma- 
tism, tubercular,  constitutional  diseases,  and  anae- 
mic states — all  scourges  of  the  poor — induce  insan- 
ity. The  monotonous  and  hopeless  condition  of 
many  factory  hands,  depriving  them  of  all  interest 
in  a  higher  life,  is  favorable  to  dementia." 

Such  are  the  opinions  of  the  leading  minds  of 
Europe  on  the  spreading  causes  of  insanity. 

We  shall  now  prove  the  terrible  fact  of  an  actual 
race  deterioration  by  statistics,  which,  though  suf- 
ficient to  convince  the  earnest  inquirer,  do  not 
begin  to  display  all  the  facts  of  the  case. 


24 


Rate  of  Insanity. 


Making  every  allowance,  the  following  table  of 
the  number  of  lunatics  and  idiots  in  England  and 
Wales  and  of  their  annual  admissions,  shows  that 
the  increase  of  want,  worry,  over-work,  crowding, 
drunkenness,  etc.,  have  their  effects  on  the  mental 
condition  of  the  people : 


Years, 

Insane  and 
Idiots. 

Admis- 
sions. 

Years. 

Insane  and 
Idiots. 

Admis- 
sions, 

1859.. 

...36,762 

9.310 

1868.. 

...  5 1 ,000 

11,213 

i860.. 

...38-058 

9,512 

1869. . 

...53.177 

11,194 

1861.. 

•  •  •  39.647 

9.329 

1870. . 

...54,713 

11,620 

1862.. 

...41.129 

9.078 

187I.. 

...56,755 

12,573 

1863.. 

...43,118 

8,914 

1872.. 

. . .  58,640 

12,176 

1864. . 

.-.  44.795 

9.473 

1873.. 

. .  .60,296 

12,773 

1865.. 

...45.950 

10,424 

1874.. 

. .  .62,027 

13,229 

1866.. 

...47.648 

10,051 

1875.. 

•  .•63.793 

14.317 

1867.. 

. . .  49,086 

10,631 

1876.. 

. .  .64,916 

14,386 

The  statements  of  Dr.  Simon,  the  medical  offi- 
cer of  the  British  Government,  Maudsley,  and  Dr. 
Robertson,  lead  all  to  the  same  conclusion. 

In  Ireland,  were  in 

1844 10,855  insane. 

1863 16,256      " 

In  France  insanity  has  most  fearfully  increased 
during  the  last  ten  years,  though  there  were  already 
in  1866,  90,684  insane  and  idiots,  including  those 
in  private  institutions.  The  following  table  is  taken 
from  the  Report  of  the  Inspector-General  of  the 
Insane,  and  takes  only  notice  of  the  poor  insane  in 
public  asylums : 


Rate  of  Insanity. 


25 


January  i, 

1835, 

m  the  asy 

lums     . 

.     10,529  insane 

1840, 

« 

.     13.243       " 

1845, 
1850, 

« 

.     17,089      " 
.     20,061       " 

1855. 

« 

.     24,869      " 

i860. 

" 

.     28,761       « 

u 

1S69, 

" 

" 

.     38,545       " 

Belgium  had  in 

its  asyl 

urns  in 

1852 
1856 
i860 

4,054  insane. 

4,278 

4.832 

1864 

.    . 

•    •    • 

. 

5,441       " 

In  the  Netherlands  there  were  in  the  asylums  in 

January  i,  1844 837  insane. 

1850 1,187      " 

1856 1,828 

"  1862 2,317       " 

1868 3,179      " 

Norwegia  had  in 

1835  ....     I  insane  in  334  population. 
1845  ....  "309 

1855  ....  "         239 

In  the  Rhenish  provinces  of  Prussia  the  ratio  of 
the  insane  to  the  population  was  in 

1828    ...     I  insane  in  1,027  population. 

1856  ...  "  666  " 

In  Nassau  the  ratio  of  the  insane  to  the  popula- 
tion was  in 

1840  ....     I  insane  in  607  population, 
1858  ....  "         318 

2 


26  Rate  of  Insanity. 

In  Wurtemberg  insanity  has  increased  since  1832 
76.3  per  cent.,  while  the  population  has  increased 
13.5  per  cent. 

Baden  shows  in 


1848 
1851 
1854 
1857 
i860 
1862 


100 

msane. 

158 

187 

231 

255 

306 

The  official  reports  of  Berlin  show  an  increase  of 

cases  of  mental  aberration  or  melancholia  in 

1864 275  cases. 

1865 337     " 

1866 377     " 

Massachusetts  had  in  1870  in  a  population  of 
1,457,351,  3,194  insane.  Dr.  Jarvis  shows  in  the 
Fifth  Annual  Health  Report  an  annual  increase  of 
fresh  cases.     In 


1867   . 

.     I  for  every 

1,546  population. 

1868   . 

" 

1,486 

1869   . 

!• 

1.533 

1870   . 

«< 

1,350 

1871    . 

M 

1.389 

1872   . 

,          .                           " 

1,357 

The  intensity  of  this  disease  of  degeneracy  has 
equally  increased,  so  that  at  Bicetre,  among  100 
insane  were  afflicted  with  general  paralysis,  the 
very  worst  form  and  the  most  incurable,  in 


Rate  of  Insanity.  27 

1828-1829 peases. 

1832-1833 16      " 

1836-1837 19      " 

1840-1841 25      " 

1844-1845 27      " 

1848-1849 34      " 

A  glance  at  the  following  figures  will  show  the 
disproportionate  increase  of  the  insane  in  the  Uni- 
ted States.     In  54  asylums  were  in 

1839  .  .  1,329  insane,  with      961  annual  new  cases. 

1849  .  .  7,029      "  "       2,961       "  " 

1859  .  .  13,696      "  "       5,342      " 

1869  .  .  22,549      "  "      8,769      "  " 

The  State  of  New  York  had  in  its  various  insti- 
tutions in* 

1870 4.761  insane. 

1871 5.073       " 

1873 6,003       " 

1874 6,279      " 

What  a  commentary  these  increasing  ratios  of 
insanity  form  to  Galton,  when  he  says :  "  Our  race 
is  overweighed  and  likely  to  be  drudged  into  de- 
generacy by  demands  that  exceed  its  powers.  With 
the  deterioration  of  the  condition  of  the  masses, 
their  organizations  and  functions,  there  will  be 
plenty  of  idiots,  but  very  few  great  men ;  and, 
hence,  under  the  miserable  conditions  in  which 
the  masses  of  the  people  live,  the  general  standard 
of  mind  is  but  little  above  the  grade  of  trained 
idiocy." 


28  Rate  of  Insanity. 

The  eager  pursuit  of  wealth,  says  an  eminent 
writer,  as  well  as  the  dread  of  poverty,  have  their 
ill  effects.  Men  are  excited,  anxious,  absorbed  in 
the  state  of  the  market,  petty  gains,  meanness  and 
dishonesty,  until  their  moral  nature  and  character 
are  sapped,  and  their  nature  deteriorated.  Over- 
work, depression,  exhaustion,  want  of  culture,  pov- 
erty, drunkenness,  licentiousness,  are  all  favorable 
to  the  development  of  insanity ;  and  the  number 
of  the  insane  is  rising.  The  same  author  relates  a 
number  of  cases  of  financial  operators,  whose  specu- 
lative, selfish  minds  show  their  morbidity  in  the 
diseased  minds  of  their  children,  who  ^re  either 
morally  defunct  or  wholly  insane. 

The  increase  of  insanity  has  been  for  a  century 
steady,  large  and  universal  in  the  ratio  of  the 
spread  of  our  present  civilization. 

Is  this  lesson  not  plain  enough,  when  the  uni- 
versally educated  Scandinavians  have  3.4  insane  in 
1,000  population;  the  cultivated  Germans,  3  in 
1,000;  the  less  educated  Romanic  nations,  i  in 
1,000;  and  the  most  barbarous  Sclavonic  races,  0.6 
in  1,000;  and,  again,  when  the  ratio  of  the  insane 
to  the  population  is  larger  in  cities  than  in  the 
country,  and  the  professionally  educated,  who  com- 
pose 5.04  per  cent,  of  the  population,  yield  13.8  of 
all  the  insane?  If,  then,  our  civilization  and  Edu- 
cation are  especially  productive  of  human  dctcrio- 


Crime.  29 

ration  and  insanity,  is  it  not  reasonable  to  ask  that 
Education  should  studiously  avoid  and  oppose 
whatever  degenerates  mankind  ? 

CRIME. 

Crime  may  have  decreased  numerically  but  it 
has  deepened  in  quality,  and  has  become  a  low, 
permanent  type  of  humanity.  The  crime  of  former 
times  was  rude  force  cropping  out  under  other  in- 
fluences as  stern  virtue,  and  needed  but  the  restraint 
of  force.  The  crime  of  to-day  is  disease  and  insan- 
ity, and  cries  for  help.  Sporadic  crime  is  individ- 
ual, habitual  crime  is  social ;  for  society  engenders 
it  by  deteriorating  humanity,  though  it  denies  the 
paternity  and  evades  the  responsibility.  An  En- 
glish judge  says,  insanity  and  criminality  are  con- 
vertible terms.  Plato  and  Aristotle  held  crime 
and  insanity  akin,  and  so  do  Pinel,  Esquirol  and 
Prichard  in  our  own  day.  Morel  says,  we  have 
hidden  in  us  the  germs  of  the  fatal  disposition  of 
which  we  are  the  victims. 

But  our  position  that  the  criminal  class  is  evidence 
of  a  deep-seated  social  deterioration,  calls  for  more 
than  a  mere  incidental  verification.  We  shall,  there- 
fore, sustain  it  by  the  observations  of  Bruce  Thomp- 
son, than  whom  none  has  brought  greater  expe- 
rience and  thoroughness  to  the  treatment  of  this 
question.     "  Intimate  and  daily  experience,"  says 


30  Crime. 

he,  "  have  led  me  to  the  conviction,  that  in  by  far 
the  greater  proportion  of  offences,  crime  is  heredi- 
tary, which  tendency  is  in  most  cases  associated 
with  bodily  defect,  such  as  spinal  deformities,  stam- 
mering or  other  imperfect  organizations  of  speech, 
club-foot,  cleft  palate,  hare-lip,  deafness,  congenital 
blindness,  paralysis,  epilepsy  and  scrofula." 

*'  The  criminal  class,"  says  this  great  officer  and 
observer, "  has  a  stupid,  sullen  look,  the  complexion 
is  bad,  the  heads  and  outlines  are  harsh,  clumsy, 
and  angular ;  the  women  are  positively  ugly  in 
form,  feature  and  action.  The  frequency  of  tuber- 
cular diseases  among  habitual  criminals  is  proof  of 
a  low  type  and  a  deteriorated  system.  Most  of 
them  die  before  the  meridian  of  life  is  reached, 
and  hardly  any  see  old  age.  The  post-mortem  ex- 
aminations show  a  series  of  morbid  appearances 
very  remarkable ;  almost  every  vital  organ  of  the 
body  being  more  or  less  diseased ;  few  dying  of 
one  disease,  but  generally  worn  out  by  a  complete 
degeneration  of  all  the  vital  organs.  Everything 
indicates  a  deteriorated  hereditary  organization." 

The  low  state  of  intellect  among  criminals  shows 
them  degenerate.  One-third  of  the  juvenile  crimi- 
nals are  imbeciles.  According  to  the  reports  of 
the  English  common  prisons,  one  in  every  twenty- 
five  of  the  males  is  weak-minded,  insane,  or  epilep- 
tic.    Of  six  thousand  prisoners  in  Scotland,  12  per 


Crime.  3 1 

cent,  are  mentally  weak,  imbeciles,  suicides,  epilep- 
tics, besides  the  fully  insane.  According  to  the 
official  report  of  the  Millbank  Prison,  of  943  con- 
victs, 218  were  weak-minded,  34  insane,  besides 
many  epileptics.  One  in  27  was  insane,  and  the 
great  majority  had  some  inherited  physical  infirm- 
ity or  defect  of  intellect.  Out  of  6,273  prison 
population  in  Scotland,  fully  i  per  cent,  were  epi- 
leptic, and,  of  course,  enfeebled  in  mind  and  irrita- 
ble in  temper.  Morel  shows  that  crime  and  insan- 
ity lapse  into  each  other  congenitally. 

Bruce  Thompson  further  shows  by  the  number- 
less recommittals  returned  to  prison,  not  three,  four 
or  five,  but  thirty,  forty  and  fifty  times,  by  the 
utter  remorselessness,  grossest  habitual  lying,  and 
total  want  of  all  self-respect,  that  professional  crimi- 
nals are  hopeless  imbeciles  and  hardly  amenable  to 
moral  treatment.  What  else  is  this  but  a  degraded 
organization  ? 

The  criminal  classes  are  especially  liable  to  brain 
diseases  and  insanity,  and  many  of  the  great  crimi- 
nals died  in  lunatic  asylums ;  and  madness  among 
criminals  in  prison  is  extremely  frequent.  In  Scot- 
land, of  2,690  criminals,  57  are  insane,  or  i  in  47  of 
the  criminal  population,  while  of  the  whole  popula- 
tion, I  in  432  is  the  common  proportion. 

In  England,  during  1860-1868,  1,244  criminals 
were    detained   as   insane.      In    1 857-1 867,   of  664 


32  Crime. 

homicides,  io8  were  declared  by  the  courts  of 
England  as  insane.  Among  the  habitual  female 
criminals,  i  in  30  is  the  proportion  of  the  insane 
to  the  sane. 

Frederic  Hill  says :  "  Crime  often  proceeds  from 
father  to  son  in  a  long  line  of  succession."  Prof. 
Laycock  says :  "  The  line  of  hereditary  transmission 
of  mental  and  moral  qualities  is  as  inexorable  in 
these  moral  imbeciles  as  in  other  men,  and  adds  to 
the  imbecile,  vicious  and  degraded  part  of  the 
population." 

Dr.  William  Guy,  upon  a  thorough  research  of 
the  judicial  record  of  the  Millbank  Prison  during  a 
period  of  thirty  years,  shows  that  of  5,598  criminals 
convicted  of  rape,  arson,  horse  and  cattle  stealing, 
burglary,  homicidal  attacks  or  violence,  and  fraudu- 
lent offences,  232  were  insane,  weak-minded,  and 
epileptic ;  657  were  scrofulous  or  lung  and  heart 
diseased;  1,434  were  deformed  or  defective,  and 
3,399  were  sound. 

The  same  great  authority  says :  "  We  have  at 
this  moment  at  the  Millbank  Prison  200  convicts, 
who  would  be  much  more  in  their  place  at  an  in- 
sane asylum." 

The  late  Governor  of  the  Chatham  Convict  Prison 
declared  :  "  I  have  known  as  many  as  50  per  cent, 
and  more  of  the  inmates  of  an  Irish  convict  prison 
mentally  affected." 


Crime.  33 

E.  Gordon,  the  late  Lord  Advocate  of  Scotland-, 
testifies  to  the  great  weakness  of  intellect  among 
those  placed  at  the  bar  of  justice. 

Dr.  Wilson,  in  a  paper  read  before  the  British 
Association,  in  1869,  reported  that  from  the  exami- 
nation of  460  heads  of  criminals,  and  from  observa- 
tions he  had  made,  he  had  no  doubt  that  cranial 
deficiency,  associated  with  a  real  physical  deterio- 
ration, is  the  cause  of  crime,  and  that  40  per  cent, 
of  all  convicts  are  invalids  more  or  less,  and  that 
the  percentage  is  largely  increased  in  the  class  of 
professional  thieves. 

Dr.  Campbell  found  in  50  prisoners,  after  death, 
the  weight  of  the  brain  2  lbs.  and  H/^  oz.,  while 
the  average  weight  of  the  brain  in  other  men  is 
over  3  lbs.  The  average  height  of  6,022  male  pris- 
oners, who  passed  through  the  Worcester  Prison, 
was  found  two  inches  less  than  the  average  height 
of  Englishmen,  and  their  weight  was  lighter  in 
proportion. 

The  physical  aspects  of  convicts  have  become 
almost  proverbial.  Bullet  heads,  low  brows,  pro- 
jecting cars,  weasel  eyes,  and  other  bodily  indica- 
tions of  deficiency,  are  but  too  general  among 
them.  In  some  of  the  most  ferocious  criminals 
there  have  repeatedly  been  discovered  after  death 
morbid  conditions  of  the  brain  or  other  organs, 
as  tumors,  cancers,  ulcers,  or  irritating  secretions, 


34  Crime. 

which  fully  accounted  for  mental  or  moral  defi- 
ciencies and  for  murders  committed. 

Dr.  Wines  cites  many  cases  of  congenitally  weak 
minds,  idiots  and  insane,  which  came  under  his 
notice  among  our  own  criminals. 

Miss  Dix  has  in  two  years  traced  twenty-six 
persons  convicted  for  crime  in  the  Eastern  Peni- 
tentiary of  Pennsylvania,  who  were  insane.  Every 
month,  she  says,  men  are  convicted  and  sentenced 
as  if  they  were  responsible,  when,  in  fact,  they 
were  not. 

Among  233  convicts,  whose  personal  relations 
have  been  carefully  studied  under  the  auspices 
of  our  eminent  sanitarian  and  prison  reformer,  Dr. 
Harris,  54  were  found  belonging  to  families  in 
which  insanity,  epilepsy  and  other  disorders  of 
the  nervous  system  are  reported.  Eighty -three 
per  cent,  belonged  to  a  criminal,  pauper  or  inebri- 
ate stock,  and  were,  therefore,  hereditary  or  congen- 
itally affected ;  and,  hence,  nearly  'j6  per  cent,  of 
their  number  proved  habitual  criminals.  Dr.  Har- 
ris states,  also,  that  the  general  observation  in  the 
counties  of  our  State  goes  to  prove  that  crime, 
pauperism  and  insanity  revert  into  each  otiicr  con- 
genitally, so  that  disease  or  insanity  in  the  parent 
produces  crime  or  pauperism  in  the  offspring,  or 
vice  versa,  crime  or  pauperism  in  the  parent  pro- 
duces disease  or  insanity  in  the  offspring. 


Crhne.  35 

The  progress  of  culture  and  civilization  has  cer- 
tainly lessened  the  crime  of  unrestrained  passion 
and  rudeness ;  but  has  the  criminal  class,  until  quite 
of  late,  been  reached  ? 

In  England  and  Wales  were  committed  in 

1805 4,605  individuals. 

1815 7,818 

1825 14,437 

1835 20,731 

1845 24,033 

According  to  Potter,  crime  has  increased  in  En- 
gland and  Wales  since  the  beginning  of  this  cen- 
tury to  1850,  to  five  times;  in  Ireland,  from  1805 
to  1849,  to  twelve  times;  and  in  Scotland,  since 
181 5  to  1849,  ^^  seven  times.  While  the  popula- 
tion has  increased  79  per  cent.,  crime  has  risen  482 
per  cent. 

In  France  were  committed  for  common  offenses  in 

1826-1830  ....  178,021  individuals. 

1831-1835  ....  203,207 

1841-1845  ....  195,542         " 

1846-1850  ....  221,414         " 

Incendiarism  has  in  1 826-1 865  increased  in  France 
over  200  per  cent. 

In   London,  the  proportion  of  incendiarism  to 

buildings  was : 

1845 I  in  2,990, 

1850 I  in  2,673, 

1855 I  in  2,585, 


36  Crime. 

1861 I  in  2,370, 

1862 I  in  2,180, 

1863 I  in  2,064, 

1864 I  in  1,980, 

1865 I  in  1,900. 

In  Holland,  according  to  Guringar,  crime  has  in 
the  last  years  increased  72  per  cent.,  and  the  pris- 
oners 34  per  cent.  Norwegia  had  in  181 5,  480 
criminals,  and  in  1845,  1,782  ! 

And  what  progress  have  we  made  in  the  United 
States  in  lessening  the  number  of  the  great  and 
habitual  criminals  who  crowd  our  State  prisons  ? 
In  1850  the  entire  population  was  19,553,668,  and 
the  inmates  of  our  State  prisons  numbered  5*646. 
In  i860  the  population  was  26,922,537,  and  the 
criminals  in  the  State  prisons  numbered  19,086; 
and  at  the  last  census,  in  1870,  the  population  of 
the  United  States  amounted  to  33,589,377,  and  the 
number  of  criminals  was  32,901. 

We  see  here  at  a  glance,  that  crime  has  increased 
beyond  all  proportion  to  population.  Neither  will 
it  answer  to  lay  it  to  the  foreign  element,  the  crim- 
inal rate  of  which  has  remained  the  same,  or  even 
lessened,  while  the  native  criminals  have  increased 
during  1 860-1 870,  from  10,143  to  24,173. 

We  have  proven  that  the  criminal  class  is  a  de- 
viation from  the  normal  type  of  humanity,  and  is, 
therefore,  an  evidence  of  actual  race  deterioration. 
Statistics  have  shown  us  that  no  decided  decrease 


Crime.  37 

of  crime  has  attended  our  late  general  progress  of 
civilization  ;  and,  in  fact,  the  recommittals,  espe- 
cially of  juvenile  criminals,  the  frequency  of  female 
criminality,  suicides,  infanticides,  prostitution  and 
illegitimate  births,  show  all  a  deep-seated  human 
deterioration.  Of  course,  illegitimate  births  mean 
a  rich  harvest  for  the  grave,  the  jail,  and  prostitu- 
tion, the  latter  of  which  avenges  itself  on  society 
by  insidious  venereal  deterioration,  which  inflicts 
upon  its  unborn  victims  blindness,  idiocy,  phthisis, 
scrofula  and  a  most  degenerate  system  in  general. 
But  we  must  forbear  entering  here  upon  this  form 
of  human  deterioration  though  not  to  mention  it 
would  be  a  gross  oversight. 

The  causes  of  human  deterioration  are  vast  and 
many,  but  the  right  sort  of  Education  may  conquer 
them  all. 

When  the  hero  of  Wagram,  Austerlitz  and  Jena 
stood  at  the  gates  of  Berlin,  Fichte  addressed  to 
the  German  nation,  in  the  midst  of  the  thunder 
and  storm  which  burst  forth  from  the  brazen  throats 
of  a  thousand  cannons,  the  potent  word.  Education, 
and  the  relative  position  of  the  French  and  Ger- 
mans to-day  proves  the  wisdom  of  the  patriot  and 
philosopher.  Like  an  ancient,  renowned  legislator, 
he  thought  Education  was  the  sole  function  of  the 
Government  ;  for,  where  the  people  are  rightly  ed- 
ucated, \var,  prisons,  courts,  asylums  of  all  sorts, 


38  Blmdncss  and  Deaf -Mutism. 

poor-houses,  hospitals   and    other  institutions  of 
the  same  kind  cease  to  have  an  existence. 

BLINDNESS   AND   DEAF-MUTISM. 

BHndness  and  deaf-mutism  are  common,  fearful, 
expensive  and  preventable.  Europe  has  500,- 
000  blind,  Asia  2,000,000  and  the  United  States 
25,000.  What  a  growing  misery  and  public  ex- 
pense. Blindness,  congenital  in  one  in  ten  cases, 
and  then  the  offspring  of  a  deteriorated  parentage, 
results  in  the  main  from  causes  accompanying  misery. 
Scarlet  fever,  measles,  smallpox,  typhoid  and  other 
fevers,  all  preventable  diseases,  raging  among  the 
poor,  give  rise  to  this  terrible  visitation  and  great 
public  burden  ;  and  so  does  scrofula.  Ophthalmia  is 
another  disease  of  poverty  leading  often  to  blind- 
ness. The  strain  upon  the  eyes  of  tailors,  dress 
makers,  needle  makers,  watch  makers,  blacksmiths 
and  other  operatives  causes  much  blindness ;  but  lace 
making  is  the  most  fearful  trade  as  far  as  blinding 
poor  operatives  is  concerned. 

Deaf-mutes,  Europe  counts  250,000,  and  the  Uni- 
ted States  20,000.  That  congenital  deaf-mutism  is 
a  deterioration  of  the  system  is  obvious  from  the 
fact  that  whilst  in  Europe  i  in  1400  is  a  deaf-mute, 
there  are  poor  regions  there  in  which  i  in  44,  and 
even  i  in  20  of  the  entire  population  is  a  deaf-mute  ! 

Of  644  deaf-mutes  in  Massachusetts,  350  arc  con- 


Unfitness  for  Military  Service.  39 

genital  and  traceable  to  a  deteriorated  stock,  whilst 
304  are  post-natal,  of  whom  112  are  the  result  of 
scarlet  fever,  and  the  rest  are  the  victims  of  other 
fevers,  diseases  and  accidents  peculiar  to  the  tene- 
ments and  condition  of  the  poor. 

The  blind,  deaf-mute,  as  well  as  the  idiot,  are  but 
chargeable  to  removable  causes  and  conditions  of 
our  half  civilization.  Inherent  weakness  is  the 
cause  of  many  a  form  of  degeneracy.  Under  differ- 
ent conditions  the  local  or  general  congenital  weak- 
ness leads  to  blindness,  deaf-mutism,  idiocy,  or  other 
morbid  formation,  still -birth,  deformity,  general 
weakness,  or  death  in  early  infancy. 

UNFITNESS    FOR    MILITARY   SERVICE. 

Michel  Levy,  the  highest  sanitary  authority  in 
France,  cites  the  following  facts  as  evidence  of  a 
general  race  deterioration  :  From  18 16  to  1840, 
of  7,321,609  recruits,  1,416,527.  or  nearly  one-fifth, 
have  been  rejected  for  being  below  the  requisite 
stature  or  on  account  of  infirmities.  In  compar- 
ing the  exempted  prior  to  18 16  with  those  of  1840, 
the  latter  are  twice  as  numerous,  though  the  stand- 
ard has  been  lowered  from  i  metre  57  centimetres, 
to  I  metre  56  centimetres.     There  were  rejected  in 

1852  .     .       3.34  per  cent,  for  deficient  growth. 

15.55       "  "   infirmities. 

1853  •     •       4-75       "  "    deficient  growth. 

21.03       "  "   foi"  infirmities. 


40  Unfitness  for  Military  Service. 

The  steady  deterioration  of  the  people  necessi- 
tated a  continual  lowering  of  the  military  standard, 
as  the  following  table  will  show  : 

It  was,  1 701 1.624  metres, 

1803 1.598      " 

1818 1.576      " 

"        i860 1.560      " 

and  to-day  of  every  325,000  young  men  who  sur- 
vive their  twenty-fifth  year,  108,333  are  rejected  on 
account  of  low  stature  or  infirmities. 

According  to  the  statement  of  Dr.  Mayer,  the 
average  of  nine  years  shows  176  out  of  1,000  con- 
scripts under  the  standard  measure,  and  399  unfit 
on  account  of  bodily  ailments.  Berlin  could  not  fur- 
nish its  quota  in  men  fit  for  service  by  156  in  1856. 

If,  on  an  average,  352  in  1,000  men  of  the  most 
favorable  age  are  rejected  by  the  recruiting  officer, 
what  must  be  the  condition  of  the  people  at  large? 

Among  8,794,674  examined  recruits  of  European 
countries  between  1837  and  1856,  1,576,815,  or  17.9 
per  cent.,  were  found  below  the  standard  measure, 
and  3,097,016  sickly,  crippled,  feeble  and  otherwise 
unfit  for  military  service.  What  a  condition  !  About 
53.1  per  cent,  of  men,  at  their  best  age,  sickly  or 
stunted  in  their  growth. 

The  official  report  of  the  canton  of  Zurich  shows, 
for  the  agricultural  districts,  29  in  1,000  young  men 
disabled  ;  for  the  industrial,  35. 


Factory  Population.  41 


FACTORY   POPULATION. 

The  deterioration  of  the  factory  population  in 
England  is  seen  from  the  fact  that,  on  an  average, 
the  measure  of  1,000  factory  boys  aged  18  years, 
was  55.28  inches,  of  non-factory  boys,  55.56  inches 
— a  difference  of  .28  inches  in  favor  of  non-factory 
boys.  The  same  official  report  shows  2,000  factory 
boys,  aged  9-17  years,  weighing  3  pounds  less  each 
than  as  many  non-factory  boys. 

Upon  examination 

51  farmers'  boys,  old  10  y.,  9  m.,  measured  in  height  51  inches. 
51  mining  boys,  of  the  same  age,  measured  47.3  inches. 

An  official  examination  of  the  health  of  350  fac- 
tory, and  as  many  non-factory  boys,  showad  of 

Factory.  Non-factory. 

Bad  health 73  2i 

Middle  health      ....     134  88 

Good  health 143  241 

These  examinations  have  been  varied  without 
any  material  change  in  the  result. 

The  following  official  list  of  the  diseases  of  the 
factory  and  agricultural  population  of  the  canton 
Zurich,  in  Switzerland,  is  suggestive.  In  each  1,000 
population  were  found  : 

Factory.  Agriculturists. 

Eye  diseases 13  7 

Injuries  from  accidents    .     .     14  7 

Rheumatic  diseases     ...     13  9 


42  Cofisumption. 

Factory.  Agriculturists 

Lung  diseases 37  10 

Abdominal  diseases     ...       9  3 

Scrofula  and  infirmity      .     .     1 1  5 

Ulcers 8  3 

*  The  deteriorating  influence  of  the  trades  is  only 
so  fearful  because  they  are  divorced  from  science 
and  Education,  which  alone  can  find  the  means  of 
rendering  them  innoxious,  and  dispose  the  men 
engaged  in  them  to  be  more  on  their  guard. 

Workers  in  white  lead,  arsenic  and  phosphorous 
compounds,  who  deteriorate  most  fearfully  in  most 
factories,  suffer  hardly  any  where  the  employers 
are  highly  intelligent  and  conscientiously  disposed, 
and  •  the  government  keeps  a  strict  watch  over  the 
hygienic  management  of  factories. 

Nothing  calls  louder  for  the  association  of  sci- 
ence and  Education  with  the  trades,  than  the  pres- 
ent outrageous  poisoning  of  humanity  throughout 
more  or  less  all  the  factories  of  the  land. 

CONSUMPTION. 

As  consumption  shows  more  degeneracy  and  de- 
teriorates humanity  more  fearfully  than  any — and 
we  might  almost  say  than  all  other  diseases  put 
together — we  will  just  refer  to  its  deteriorating 
influence  in  the  trades  divorced  from  science  and 
Education  upon  the  men  engaged  in  them.  In 
Berlin,  the  observation  was  made,  that  the  whole 


Consumption.  43 

population  being-  taken, of  1,000  deaths  of  men  over 
20  years,  344  are  caused  by  tubercular  consump- 
tion, while  among  mechanics,  497  die  from  this 
fearfully  deteriorating  disease. 

This  observation  is  confirmed  by  the  experience 
of  Dr.  Hannover,  at  Copenhagen,  who  found 
that  upon  60  deaths  from  consumption  among 
the  people  at  large  come  96  among  the  mechanics 
and  laborers. 

According  to  the  observations  of  Benoiston  de 
Chateauneuf,  among  43,010  hospital  cases  18  to 
48.4  of  every  1,000  died  from  consumption,  ac- 
cording to  the  nature  of  the  different  trades  and 
the  deteriorating  influences,  as  dampness,  danger- 
ous fumes,  dust,  etc.,  accompanying  them. 

Lombard  found  that,  while  among  men  who  live 
in  perfectly  healthy  surroundings,  50  to  89  in  a 
thousand  die  from  consumption ;  men  working  in 
the  close  air  of  factories,  as  they  are  managed  to- 
day, die  in  138  cases  in  1,000;  those  working  in 
dust  of  any  sort,  die  in  137  to  152;  and  those  ex- 
posed to  the  evaporations  of  ethereal  acids,  var- 
nishes, etc.,  die  in  369  cases  in  1,000  from  con- 
sumption. 

In  the  always  reliable  statistics  of  Geneva,  we 
find  among  men  living  under  the  best  possible 
conditions  the  death  rate  from  consumption  in 


44  Consnviptiofi. 

1,000  deaths 50 

Among  the  tailors 601 

Machinists 497 

Book  binders,  calico  printers,  painters, 
gilders,  stone  masons,  type  founders, 

and  millers 483 

Jewelers,    watchmakers   and   day    la- 
borers    460 

Silk  workers 333 

Fifty  in  a  thousand  we  may,  then,  call  the  nat- 
ural proportion  of  death  from  consumption  to  the 
deaths  from  all  other  causes.  How  loudly,  then, 
do  these  high  ratios  of  death  from  consumption 
call  for  bringing  to  bear  science  and  Education 
upon  these  race-deteriorating  trades,  in  many  of 
which  men  grow  gray  before  they  live  half  their 
years.  The  dry-grinders  die  in  the  majority  of 
cases  before  they  reach  thirty-six  years ;  so  do  the 
manufacturers  of  watches  and  others  exposed  to 
fine,  hard  dust,  like  cutters  of  crystals,  stone  cut- 
ters, etc. 

It  is  impossible  to  pass  unnoticed  this  great 
cause  of  human  deterioration ;  but  to  state  in  full 
the  disease,  deformity,  death,  and  even  hereditary 
corruption  of  body  and  mind  entailed  by  each  of 
two  hundred  trades  deprived  of  the  safeguards  and 
thoughtful  precaution  of  science,  the  school  and 
Education,  upon  the  producers  of  the  wealth  of 
the  country,  would  fill  many  volumes. 


Scrofula.  45 

SCROFULA. 

The  tendency  of  the  masses  toward  degeneracy  Is 
obvious  from  the  character  and  spread  of  scrofula — ■ 
significantly  called  by  some  the  people's  malady — a 
constitutional,  hereditary  and  deteriorating  disease 
common  among  the  poor.  Mr.  Phillips,  the  greatest 
authority  in  this  field  of  inquiry,  says  that  in  the 
cottages  of  the  poor  we  find  the  child  with  a  scrof- 
ulous constitution,  often  pallid,  puffy,  insensible, 
listless ;  and,  if  it  be  not  altogether  deprived  of 
force  and  energy,  what  remains  is  soon  wasted  by 
taxing  it  beyond  its  force. 

In  an  extraordinary  experience  extending  to  the 
examination  of  133,721  children,  24.5  per  cent, 
presented  a  number  of  scrofulous  symptoms ;  in  3.5 
per  cent,  the  disease  was  so  marked  as  to  be  obvi- 
ous to  the  eye.  Among  95,586  recruits,  800,  or  i 
in  1 19,  were  rejected  on  account  of  scrofulous  marks. 
At  the  examination  of  660  persons,  between  10 
and  18  years,  at  the  house  of  correction,  95  showed 
symptoms  of  scrofula. 

Mr.  Phillips  sums  up  his  wonderful  experience 
as  follows : 

13^  per  cent,  of  the  children  of  the  poor  show 
apparent  scars ;  3  per  cent,  show  at  a  glance  en- 
larged glands ;  24^  per  cent,  show  these  enlarged 
glands  under  close  examination  ;  8  per  cent,  of  the 


46  Scrofula. 

adult  poor  show  the  same  scrofulous  symptoms; 

3  per  cent,  of  the  population  are  under  treatment 
for  scrofula. 

In  some  districts  Mr.  Phillips  found  only  11  per 
cent,  of  the  children  of  the  poor  scrofulous,  and  in 
other  districts  72  per  cent,  were  thus  affected. 

Barier  found,  upon  examination  of  166  strong 
children,  21  tuberculous,  or  i  in  8 ;  1 14  moderate 
children,  27  tuberculous,  or  i  in  4;  99  feeble  chil- 
dren, 49  tuberculous,  or  i  in  2. 

How  closely  want  and  misery  in  the  parents  and 
children  are  allied  with  scrofula,  is  obvious  from 
the  fact,  that  we  find  affected  with  this  disease : 

4  to  5  per  cent,  of  all  the  sick  in  hospitals ;  40  to 
50  per  cent,  of  foundlings ;  50  to  60  per  cent,  of 
children  received  into  orphan  asylums. 

When  we  consider  that  insufficient  or  improper 
food,  dark,  damp  and  unventilated  apartments,  in- 
sufficient clothing,  etc.,  engender  scrofula,  it  be- 
comes plain  that,  with  the  increase  of  poverty, 
scrofula  must  increase;  and,  as  this  disease  is  of 
a  tubercular  nature  and  akin  to  consumption — 
into  which  it  reverts  hereditary — the  impoverished 
masses  must  of  necessity  degenerate. 

Scrofula,  says  a  noted  American  author,  that 
once  was  a  rarity  among  us,  has  of  late  become 
quite  common. 


Changes  of  Mortality  Rates.  47 

CHANGES   OF   MORTALITY   RATES. 

Many  causes  contributed  to  improve  the  chances 
of  Hfe  from  the  sixteenth  to  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  as  the  growth  of  science, 
the  spread  of  intelligence,  the  general  prosperity 
springing  up  with  the  small  trades,  which  brought 
with  it  improved  dwellings,  food,  clothing,  etc.,  the 
disappearance  of  periodical  famines,  the  cessation 
of  former  ravages  from  smallpox  through  Jenner's 
great  discovery ;  and,  finally,  another  cause  of  the 
apparent  great  reduction  in  the  old  mortality  rates, 
is  to  be  found  in  the  prudentially  reduced  modern 
birth  rate,  caused  by  later  marriages,  as  the  mortal- 
ity is  always  greatest  among  infants. 

But  with  the  large  industries,  the  former  master 
has  become  again  poor  and  dependent ;  large  cities 
sprang  up  with  all  the  unwholesome  elements  of 
thick  populations,  crowded  tenements  with  their 
vices,  drunkenness,  worst  of  all,  alcoholism,  illegiti- 
mate births,  the  trade  diseases  of  modern  factories, 
and  all  contributed  to  swell  of  late  the  list  of 
mortality.  The  ravages  of  our  largely  increased 
factory  towns  make  up  for  the  former  victims  from 
the  smallpox,  and  our  periodical  business  stagna- 
tions are  as  calamitous  to  the  working  people  as 
former  famines  were. 

There  is  none  but  will  agree  that  there  are  ele- 


48 


General  Deterioration. 


ments  in  our  civilization  tending  toward  the  deterio- 
ration of  mankind  which  must  be  combated ;  our 
position,  therefore,  cannot  but  be  tenable  that  our 
Education  must  strive  to  preserve  the  race,  which 
it  can  only  by  being  physiological,  scientific  and  • 
industrial — making  us  healthy,  intelligent  and  pros- 
perous. 


GENERAL  DETERIORATION. 

A  picture  of  France  of  but  a  few  years  ago  may 
serve  us  as  an  illustration  of  our  civilization,  which 
strives  for  perfection  in  art  and  literature,  for  accu- 
mulation of  wealth  and  everything  else,  save  the 
one  thing  needful — the  amelioration  of  mankind. 
France,  with  a  population  of  35,783,170,  had 


Blind 

One-eyed  .... 
Deaf-mutes    .     .     . 

Insane  

Goiter  and  hunchbacks 
Deformed  spinal  column 
Loss  of  one  or  both  arms 
"       "            "         legs 
Club  foot 


Total  . 


37,662, 
75.063, 
29,512, 
44.970, 

42,383» 
44,619, 

9.077, 
11,301, 
22,547, 

317.134. 


This  picture  of  misery  is  far  from  being  com- 
plete. The  charity  murder  of  tens  of  thousands  of 
foundlings,  the  massacre  of  factory  hands  and  mi- 
ners, a  fearful  infant  mortality,  paupers,  criminals, 


Pauperism.  49 

prostitutes,  infanticrdes  and  suicides,  should  all  be 
added  as  evidence  that  our  pretentious  age  under- 
stands but  little  of  the  art  how  to  prevent  the  de- 
terioration of  mankind. 

What  a  picture  the  whole  of  Europe  presents  of 
what  we  call  in  this  age  civilization,  with  its  300,- 
000  deaf-mutes,  500,000  blind,  as  many  insane  and 
idiotic,  and  as  large  a  criminal  class  ! ! 

PAUPERISM. 

Pauperism,  like  insanity,  does  not  exist  in  the 
natural  state  of  man.  Under  the  sweet  influences 
of  the  skies,  he  is  in  the  woods  as  quick  and  nimble 
as  the  bird  or  deer  he  pursues.  Only  in  the  at- 
mosphere, thick  with  moral  and  physical  poison 
of  crowded  cities,  he  degenerates  into  a  pauper, 
robbed  of  all  that  elasticity  and  high  potency  by 
which  man  masters  every  resistance  and  subjects 
everything  to  his  will.  Pauperism  being  the  parent 
as  well  as  the  offspring  of  human  deterioration, 
forms  such  an  entanglement  of  causes  and  effects 
as  to  render  it  difficult  to  hunt  it  down.  Our  poor- 
houses  reveal  at  a  glance  the  genesis  of  pauperism, 
for  there  we  find  the  congenitally  blind,  deaf  and 
mute,  the  insane,  the  idiotic,  the  epileptic,  the  de- 
formed, the  inebriate  as  well  as  the  pauper  ;  and 
they  are  not  only  inmates  of  the  same  building, 
3 


50     •  Pauperism. 

but  are  members  of  the  same  family,  united  by  all 
the  ties  of  consanguinity.  This  idiot  is  that  pau- 
per's nephew ;  this  deaf-mute  is  his  own  child ; 
that  inebriate  is  his  brother;  and  that  mount  in 
view  covers  the  bones  of  an  old  inmate,  who  found 
his  last  resting  place  in  the  pauper's  field  forty-five 
years  ago — his  uncle  ;  what  are  we  to  conclude  from 
all  this  but  that  the  pauper  is  the  child  of  a  de- 
generate blood  and  family? 

We  do  not  mean  to  deny  that  poverty,  with  its 
harassing  care,  misery,  squalor,  crowded  tenements 
and  poor  fare,  with  everything  adverse  to  human 
health  and  development,  is  the  generating  cause 
of  a  deterioration  that,  deepening  still  more,  settles 
in  that  apathetic  state  of  the  pauper,  which  is  the 
beginning  of  a  line  of  deformities  ending  in  com- 
plete extinction. 

If  a  pauper  meant  a  man  without  money,  we 
should  not  care  about  him.  If  it  meant  a  man 
without  pleasure,  we  would  not  care.  If  it  meant 
a  man  of  sorrow  and  much  trouble,  we  might,  per- 
haps, not  care.  But  it  means  more  than  this,  it 
means  a  man  robbed  of  his  very  manhood  ;  and 
even  more  than  this,  he  is  corruption  and  the  de- 
formity of  everything  that  is  manly  ;  he  is  a  dis- 
seminating mass  of  crime,  insanity  and  disease  ; 
an  infernal  brood  springing  up  from  him  and  poi- 
soning all  around  him  ;  an  avenging  Nemesis  get- 


Pauperism.  5  ^ 

ting  even  with  society  that  mocked  a  brother  in 
his  deep  fall  and  degradation. 

Pauperism  is,  as  a  rule,  attended  by  ansemic 
states  of  the  blood,  which  make  continuous  exer- 
tion impossible,  and  dispose  the  poor  to  scrofula, 
subject  them  to  a  most  frightful  rate  of  infant 
mortality  as  also  to  a  very  high  figure  of  adult 
death  rate  ;  and,  during  epidemics — as  the  black 
death,  the  cholera  or  typhus — the  degenerate  poor 
are  the  first  and  often  the  only  sufferers,  as  the 
power  of  resistance  is  in  these  deteriorated  men 
reduced  to  almost  nothing. 

In  1862,  among  the  963,200  destitute  or  paupers 
of  England  and  Wales,  were  30,905  insane,  which 
makes  i  in  31.8.  If  we  consider  that  these  insane 
are  adults  of  from  20  to  45  years  of  age,  which  form 
but  one-fifth  of  the  whole  population,  we  will  find 
that  one  of  six  adults  among  the  destitute  and 
congenitally  poor  is  insane.  And  in  this  frightful 
amount  of  mental  disease  10,311  idiots  belonging 
to  the  same  destitute  poor  of  England  and  Wales 
are  not  included.  And  this  fearful  rate  of  insanity 
was  gradually  rising  from  1852  to  1869,  until  the 
ratio  of  the  insane  to  the  sane  amounted,  among 
the  paupers  of  England  and  Wales,  to  i  in  25,  and 
in  the  metropolitan  district  to  nearly  i  in  20. 

In  the  United  States  it  is  not  much  better.  In 
1854  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts  appointed  a 


52  Pauperism. 

commission  on  insanity.  They  reported  :  "  We 
find  the  pauper  class  furnishes  in  the  ratio  of  its 
number  sixty-four  times  as  many  insane  as  the 
other  classes." 

Dr.  Wm.  Guy  says,  frequent  as  insanity  is  among 
criminals,  it  is  still  more  so  among  paupers. 

Epilepsy,  that  fearful  malady,  affecting  and  en- 
feebling the  mind  more  than  any  other,  is  getting 
most  common  among  the  poor.  Dr.  Nattuck,  phy- 
sician to  the  Bradford  infirmary,  has  searched  the 
register  of  patients  for  more  than  thirty  years — 
from  1 825-1 859 — and  found  the  proportion  of  this 
malady  to  other  diseases  as  follows  : 

1825-1835 15  in  1,000, 

1835-1845 18  in  1,000, 

1845-1855 24  in  1,000, 

1855-1859 34  in  1,000. 

Balbi  observed  the  same  increase  of  epilepsy 
among  the  poor  of  Vienna  and  Milan. 

These  facts,  together  with  the  observation  of  the 
hereditary  nature  of  pauperism — which  congenitaily 
reverts  into  insanity,  disease  or  crime — leave  no 
doubt  but  that  pauperism  is  one  of  the  worst 
forms  of  race  deterioration,  and  that  the  paralysis 
of  the  human  will  and  its  energies  is  but  the  result 
of  a  fearful  dissolution  in  progress.  But,  as  we 
have  already  mentioned,  human  deterioration  is 
also  to  a   large   extent   the    result    of  pauperism. 


Pauperism.  .  53 

Dr.  Prichard,  the  famous  author  of  the  "  Physical 
History  of  Man,"  says  :  "  The  conflict  in  England 
in  the  seventeenth  century  drove  many  of  the  na- 
tives to  the  mountains  of  Shgo  and  Mayo.  Here 
they  have  been  almost  ever  since  exposed  to  the 
worst  effects  of  hunger  and  ignorance — the  two 
great  brutalizers  of  the  human  race  —  gradually 
producing  in  their  case  open,  projecting  mouths, 
with  prominent  teeth  and  exposed  gums ;  their 
advancing  cheek  bones  and  depressed  noses  bear 
barbarism  in  their  very  front.  Five  feet,  two  inches, 
on  an  average,  pot-bellied,  bow-legged,  abortively 
featured,  these  spectres  of  a  people  that  were  once 
well-grown,  able-bodied  and  comely,  stalk  abroad 
diminutive  and  deformed,  while  they  are  specimens 
of  human  beauty  and  vigor  in  other  parts  of  the 
country  where  they  have  never  been  subjected  to 
the  same  causes  of  physical  degeneration.  Such 
are  the  deteriorating  effects  of  misery ! " 

Is  the  pauper  condition  of  the  world  not  a  re- 
proach to  the  nations,  and  will  it  not  soon  involve 
their  very  existence  ?  To  say,  simply,  pauperism 
forms  in  Germany,  France  and  England  respect- 
ively, 3,  4  and  5  per  cent,  of  the  population,  or 
that  in  these  countries  30,000,  40,000  and  50,000 
of  each  million  population  are  paupers,  gives  no 
conception  of  the  existing  evil.  We  appreciate 
more  truly  the  situation  when  we  consider  that  at 


54  Pauperism. 

the  slightest  rise  of  breadstuffs  or  financial  disturb- 
ance, this  army  of  paupers  swells  to  double  and 
triple  its  usual  proportion.  So  was  in  1847  every 
tenth  man  in  England  and  every  eighth  man  in 
London  a  pauper.  In  1852  every  thirteenth  man 
in  Paris,  every  seventh  man  in  Marseilles,  and  even 
double  as  many  in  Lille,  in  France,  were  paupers. 
In  1855,  every  twelfth  man  in  Italy,  every  sixth 
in  Belgium,  and  nearly  twice  as  many  in  Flanders 
were  paupers. 

In  1847,  183,447  individuals  were  assisted  by  the 
public  authorities  of  Paris,  and  this  number  has 
gradually  risen  to  237,893  in  1866.  But  how  many 
hearts  agonized  in  secret,  and  would  not  appeal  to 
a  public  board  of  charities  ? 

The  following  statement  of  Jules  Simon  gives  us 
a  full  insight  into  the  extent  of  public  misery.  He 
takes  1,700  francs  to  be  the  lowest  possible  sum  a 
working-man  can  subsist  upon  a  year  \vith  a  family 
of  two  children.  He  further  states  that  actually 
of  500,000  work-people  of  Paris  earn  per  annum 

35,000 1,600  francs  each. 

60,000 1,400  " 

44,000 1,150  " 

160.000  - 450  " 

The  remaining  make  even  less.  But,  then,  how  do 
workmen  fare  with  five,  six  and  sevcMi  children  on 
such  scanty  incomes  ?     And  the  condition  of  this 


Pauperism.  55 

half  million  may  fairly  be  taken  as  the  average 
state  of  the  masses. 

But  we  are  permitted  to  approach  still  nearer  the 
problem  of  the  actual  condition  of  the  people.  In 
1874  the  tax  roll  in  Prussia  proved  that  58.5  per 
cent,  of  the  population  earned  individually  less  than 
$100  per  annum,  and  34.1  per  cent,  less  than  $150. 
Here,  then,  we  have  more  than  nine  out  of  every 
ten  in  the  proud  Empire  of  Bismarck  struggling 
with  poverty ;  and,  in  fact,  less  than  i  per  cent, 
has  an  income  of  $1,500,  while  the  great  wealth  of 
the  country  is  held  by  less  than  one-tenth  of  i  per 
cent,  of  the  nation. 

The  tax  roll  of  England  betrays  the  same  sad 
condition  of  the  people  there.  In  1865,  of  a  popu- 
lation of  24,127,013,  only  332,431  were  taxed  on 
incomes,  while  the  rest  of  the  nation  struggled  with 
poverty,  their  incomes  falling  below  three  hundred 
dollars  per  annum. 

In  Belgium,  in  1856,  of  908,000  families,  lived 

Upon  alms 226,000  families. 

In  utter  misery  ....  220,000       " 

In  poverty 273,000       " 

In  comfort 89,630       " 

Of  100  Belgians,  49  live  in  utter  destitution  ;  42 
live  very  poorly ;  9  live  in  comfort.  That  corrup- 
tion and  mortality  are  in  proportion  hardly  needs 
being  told  ;  44  per  cent,  of  the  children  are  illegiti- 


56  Pauperism. 

mate,  and  i  in  every  150  population  is  a  prosti- 
tute. 

The  fact  is,  we  have  volumes  upon  volumes  writ- 
ten by  the  conservative  Le  Play,  Ducpetiaux,  De 
Gerando  and  the  like  authorities,  full  of  figures 
like  Napier's  tables  of  logarithms,  about  the  wages 
of  every  trade  for  the  last  hundred  years ;  the  price 
of  bread,  meal,  cheese,  meat,  beans,  onions,  soap, 
rent,  articles  of  furniture,  clothing,  and  what  not, 
the  weight  in  grains  of  carbonaceous  and  nitro- 
genous food  indispensable  for  the  support  of  a 
man,  woman  or  child  at  the  different  seasons  of 
the  year.  Governments  are  turning  pale  at  the 
ominous  results  of  these  accounts,  all  tending  to 
establish  in  a  variety  of  ways  how  the  people  are 
wasting  away. 

The  Blue  Books  of  the  English  government,  in  a 
lengthy  and  learned  Report,  officially  advise  the 
people  of  her  British  Majesty  not  to  indulge  in 
daily  evacuations  of  the  bowels,  which  are  promo- 
tive of  too  vigorous  a  digestion.  Two  or  three 
a  week  will  do  for  people  in  straitened  circum- 
stances  

Do  not  the  very  heavens  blush  at  such  misery 
and  insults?  Poor  humanity  that  calls  for  such 
official  dissertations,  and  such  royal  philanthropy. 

Calamitous  as  40,000  to  50,000  paupers  in  the 
million  are,  the  most  desponding  fact  is  the  hope- 


Pauperism.  57 

less  struggle  of  the  whole  million,  save  fifty  or  a 
hundred  thousand  who  are  well  off.  With  the  pau- 
per— the  degraded  and  ruined  pauper — pity  comes 
too  late,  he  does  not  care  for  it,  nor  can  he  be 
bettered  ;  those  who  have  not  yet  given  up  the 
struggle  against  the  stream,  and  are  still  to  be 
saved,  should  most  excite  our  sympathy. 

What  a  mill  that  does  such  grinding,  turning 
out  to  the  million  fifty  thousand  paupers  of  whom 
a  couple  of  thousands  go  down  in  lunacy,  and 
all  end  in  total  human  brutalization,  filling  the 
world  with  bastards,  prostitutes  and  sneaks,  of 
whom  England  and  Wales  alone  count  127,839. 

The  following  table  proves  the  deteriorating 
power  of  pauperism.  Caspar  showed  that  there 
are  left  of  1,000  born  : 


A  mong  the 

A  mong  the 

favored. 

poor. 

10  years 

after  birth . 

.    .    943 

598 

25     " 

.    852 

553 

45      " 

.     624 

396 

55      " 

.    464 

283 

65     " 

.     318 

172 

85      " 

.      29 

9 

90     " 

•       15 

4 

Wherever,  says  a  very  able  writer  on  medical 
statistics,  pauperism  with  its  want  and  misery  pre- 
v^ails,  there  the  mother  is  more  likely  to  die  in  labor ; 
there  still-births  will  be  more  frequent ;  there  the 
deaths  during  infancy  will  be  more  numerous ; 
there  epidemics  will  rage  with  more  violence ;  there 


58  Remedies. 

the  recoveries  from  sickness  will  be  fewer,  and  death 
will  usually  happen  at  an  earlier  period  of  life.  All 
Education  is  thrown  away  on  men  in  this  condition, 
{ox  you  cannot  engraft  virtue  on  pJiysical  misery. 

The  advocates  of  the  old  n^ginie  claim  for  slavery 
that  pauperism  did  not  exist  under  it.  But  are  we 
not  to  bear  the  sight  of  a  brother  with  a  square 
meal  and  a  decent  bed  and  shelter  to  rest  him  from 
the  fatigue  of  an  honest  day's  work  without  we 
own  him  like  a  sheep,  a  horse  or  a  cow? 

The  rates  of  mortality  of  poor-houses  are  often 
higher  than  those  of  prisons,  insane  asylums  and 
even  than  those  of  hospitals.  Is  this  not  proof 
enough  that  pauperism  is  one  of  the  worst  phases 
of  race  deterioration  ?  That  the  county  houses,  in 
which  the  poor  are  collected,  hardly  harbor  a  man, 
woman  or  child  with  a  sound  limb,  organ  or  brain, 
establishes  only  our  proposition,  that  pauperism  is 
evidence  of  a  deteriorating  humanity. 

REMEDIES. 

This  tide  of  human  corruption,  wrong  and  infamy 
has  ceased  to  be  a  subject  for  the  consideration  of 
curious  students ;  the  despairing  millions  are  put- 
ting their  hands  to  it ;  the  very  names  of  their 
societies  and  organizations  and  public  organs  all 
over  the  world,  fill  volumes.  To  prevent  a  war 
more  bloody  and  desolating  tliaii  the  world  has 


Remedies.  59 

yet  seen,  what  is  proposed  ?  Communism,  public 
charity  or  co-operation. 

Communism,  destructive  of  Hberty  and  individ- 
uaHty,  is  complete  despotism.  Besides,  by  destroy- 
ing individual  motives  and  responsibility,  it  de- 
creases productiveness  and  increases  poverty,  want 
and  misery. 

Public  charities  were  nowhere  organized  on  so 
great  a  scale  as  in  England,  which  raised  a  poor 
tax  equal  to  the  entire  revenue  of  a  kingdom,  and 
they  failed ;  for  they  are  but  an  ill-concealed  com- 
munism, and  share  in  the  same  improvidence.  But 
even  co-operative  societies  would  bring  but  little 
help,  as  with  the  present  remorseless  competition, 
societies  would  wage  the  same  ruinous  war  against 
one  another  as  now  individuals  do. 

The  world  of  the  future  is  not  to  be  a  monster 
soup  kitchen.  The  conception  is  poor,  paltry  and 
impossible.  We  want  a  more  varied  and  higher 
productive  power  and  moral  energy.  The  world  is 
becoming  a  school  house,  training  the  race  for  more 
efficient  and  more  perfect  work.  Forty  years  ago 
the  total  value  of  the  school  property  of  the  State 
of  Massachusetts  was  half  a  million ;  to-day  it  is 
seventeen  and  a  half  millions.  The  school  prop- 
erty of  the  State  of  New  York  amounts  to  thirty 
millions.  This  shows  the  direction  we  are  inarch- 
ing in. 


6o  Remedies. 

Pauperism  is  want  of  energy,  power,  health  and 
strength.  We  must,  therefore,  introduce  into  our 
system  of  Education  the  element  of  physical  work 
to  train  the  rising  generation  to  labor  and  exertion. 
Better  we  combine  work  with  Education,  than  build 
poor-houses  and  penitentiaries,  and  introduce  work 
at  that  late  stage. 

When  labor  and  intelligent  reflection  accompany 
each  other  in  childhood  and  youth  they  will  remain 
united  through  life,  and  the  social  problem  will  be 
solved.  The  productiveness  of  labor  will  increase 
then  in  more  than  one  way ;  the  laborer  will  lessen 
his  expensive  and  injurious  indulgences,  while  he 
will  increase  his  substantial  comforts  and  nobler 
pleasures,  which  add  to  his  power  and  efficiency. 

Nothing  but  Race  Education,  training  all  classes 
— capitalists  as  well  as  laborers — for  accomplishing 
together  the  great  work  of  saving,  elevating  and 
preserving  the  race,  can  deliver  us  from  the  violent 
revolution  that  threateningly  overhangs  the  social 
sky. 

Our  present  school  system  breaks  a  boy  from 
any  inclination  he  may  have  had  for  physical  labor ; 
it  fills  the  country  with  seekers  for  clerkships  and 
office  hunters  of  all  sorts  ;  and  the  laboring  people 
feel  that  the  children  who  are  to  take  up  their  work 
arc  not  benefited  by  such  schools.  Through  union 
with  labor  the  school  becomes  the   institution  of 


Remedies.  6i 

the  people,  and  renders  Education  common  and 
universal,  as  the  lovers  of  the  race  ever  wished  to 
see  it,  and  solves  every  problem,  as  an  active  and 
intelligent  people  will  ever  be  able  to  cope  with  the 
difficulties  of  their  situation.  Or  does  any  one 
pretend  that  pauperism  offers  no  problem  for  solu- 
tion this  side  of  the  Atlantic  ? 

Let  us,  then,  just  glance  at  the  Empire  State, 
and  notice  the  progress  of  pauperism,  which  in- 
cludes every  other  private  as  well  as  public  vice 
and  misfortune,  and  we  will  find  its  rate  rising 
from  year  to  year. 


County  Poor-house 
Population, 

City  Poor-house 
Population. 

Total. 

1871 

.      .       18,933 

39,286 

58,219, 

1873 

.      .      20,193 

41.737 

61,930, 

1874 

.      .      26,094 

43.719 

69,813. 

But  the  army  of  the  poor  that  had  to  be  relieved 
by  the  board  of  charities  was  much  larger  than  the 
one  supplied  inside  the  poor-house,  and  amounted 
in  1874  to  122,391,  which,  added  to  the  first,  gives 
192,204  individuals  provided  for  by  the  public  chari- 
ties. 

But  to  form  a  correct  idea  of  the  deterioration, 
that  is  partly  the  cause  and  partly  the  effect  of 
pauperism,  let  us  look  at  the  18,933  paupers  inside 
the  poor-houses  of  the  State  of  New  York  in  1871, 
and  the  causes  which  brought  them  there : 


62  Education  and  Race  Preservation. 

Drunkenness 4.846, 

Debauchery 616, 

Idleness 873, 

Vag-rancy ...  1,023, 

Lunacy 1,652, 

Idiocy 416, 

Blindness 204, 

Deaf-mutisni 70, 

Sickness 1,327, 

Lameness 730, 

Decrepitude 427, 

Old  age 942, 

Indigency 1,735, 

Orphanage 249, 

Bastardy 311, 

Not  ascertained 3,058. 

What  a  system  of  Education,  life  and  philosophy 
the  fruitage  of  which  is  such  a  pandemonium  com- 
pounded of  hundreds  of  poor-houses,  each  teem- 
ing with  prostitutes,  bastards,  drunkards,  insane, 
idiots,  epileptics,  orphans,  lame,  sick,  blind,  deaf- 
mutes  ;  and  yet  this  queer  medley  of  vice,  misery 
and  corruption  is  but  a  sharply  drawn  picture  of 
the  outside  world. 

EDUCATION  AND  RACE  PRESERVATION. 

We  must  organize  schools  which  will  make  poor- 
houses,  penitentiaries,  insane  asylums  and  the  like 
institutions  unnecessary.  A  school  which  cannot 
do  this  has  no  right  to  exist,  and  it  will  most  as- 
suredly fail  to  bring  about  such  a  consummation, 
if  it  docs  not  strive  for  it  directly,  studiously  and 


Education  and  Race  Preservation.  63 

intelligently.  Or  has  Education  no  higher  aim 
than  geography  and  grammar,  and  does  it  take  no 
interest  in  the  weal  or  woe  of  man,  and  in  the 
calamities  and  misfortunes  of  life  which  develop 
from  habits  contracted  in  early  childhood  ? 

Race  Education  must  lay  a  new  and  deep  foun- 
dation in  the  heart,  head  and  hands  of  the  people. 
It  must  discard  shams  and  illusions,  restrain  our 
selfishness,  and  set  us  to  work  for  one  another.  It 
must  stop  our  crime-creating  society  in  its  work  of 
scattering  broadcast  the  seeds  of  death  and  dis- 
ease, of  raising  one  crop  after  another  of  half  a 
million  of  defectives  and  of  undermining  the  health 
of  all,  as  none  can  be  all  well  in  an  atmosphere 
which  breeds  such  a  distemper.  Necessity  will 
force  us  at  last  to  give  heed  to  these  lessons. 

The  capital  absorbed  in  the  State  of  New  York 
in  insane,  blind  and  deaf-mute  asylums,  in  poor- 
houses,  houses  for  orphans  and  hospitals,  amounts 
to  $50,000,000,  and  the  yearly  outlay  on  these  in- 
stitutions is  fully  $10,000,000.  Correctional  insti- 
tutions, criminal  courts  and  penitentiaries,  police 
force,  etc.,  are  not  included  in  this  sum.  And 
as  we  cannot  long  continue  the  present  barbar- 
ous fashion  of  lumping  together  all  sorts  of  defect- 
ives in  these  sinks  of  wretchedness  and  misery  we 
call  poor-houses,  and  will  have  soon  to  put  the 
blind,  the  deaf-mutes,  the  insane   the  idiot,  the  re- 


64  Education  and  Race  Preservation. 

spectable  but  indigent  old,  and,  finally,  the  chil- 
dren, into  institutions  their  condition  calls  for,  we 
shall  have  to  double  the  sum  presently  expended 
upon  them.  To  save  the  State  from  these  bur- 
dens we  must  save  humanity,  and  the  prevention 
of  human  degeneracy  must  become  the  great  aim 
of  public  Education. 

Education  is  the  natural  function  of  parental  aid 
extended  to  the  undeveloped  young  for  its  pres- 
ervation ;  and  while  among  animals  it  stops  at  the 
individual,  among  men  it  takes  in  the  race,  the  pres- 
ervation of  which  is  the  only  natural  and  sensible 
function  of  Education. 

Our  educators  study  to  reduce  the  statistical  fig- 
ures of  illiteracy,  but  look  upon  those  of  insanity, 
the  blind,  the  deaf-mutes  and  the  idiots  as  God- 
appointed  social  quantities.  The  high  figures  of 
these  miseries  are  so  constant,  because  our  barbar- 
ity is  ever  the  same,  and  we  make  no  attempt  at 
lessening  them. 

Noble  men  have  plead  for  the  bettering  of  the 
condition  of  the  insane,  the  idiot,  the  blind  and  the 
deaf-mute ;  but  what  is  wanted  is  an  earnest  effort 
for  the  prevention  of  these  miseries,  which  are  all 
the  offspring  of  a  constitution  weakened  by  wretched 
living  and  other  unhygienic  conditions,  under  which 
mostly  the  poor  degenerate. 

In  pleading  for  the  tens  of  thousands  of  insane, 


Degenerated  Tribes.  65 

idiotic,  blind,  deaf  and  dumb  we  plead  for  a  hundred 
times  as  many  outside  the  asylums ;  for  nature  tol- 
erates no  quick  transitions,  and  we  differ  all  but  in 
degree  from  one  another ;  and  for  every  one  who  is 
all  insane,  idiotic  or  criminal,  hundreds  are  partially 
so,  and  that  just  in  proportion  to  their  coming 
under  the  control  of  the  same  wide-spread  causes. 

To  prevent  human  deterioration  means  to 
strengthen  and  purify  the  whole  nation,  and  to 
defer  its  extinction  a  thousand  years.  And  is  such 
an  aim  unworthy  of  our  schools  ? 

DEGENERATED    TRIBES. 

Degeneracy,  surrounding  us  on  all  sides,  appears 
to  us  as  the  normal  condition  of  mankind,  which  is 
not  apt  to  lead  to  the  disintegration  of  the  race 
and  the  nation.  But  a  little  reflection  and  obser- 
vation may  convince  us  that  the  process  of  deterio- 
ration, though  working  by  imperceptible  degrees, 
brings  about  in  the  end  fearful  results. 

The  earth  is  full  of  kindred  tribes,  of  which  some 
are  mean  in  body  and  spirit,  brutal,  lazy  and  stupid, 
by  reason  of  the  barren  territory  they  occupy,  and 
which  starves  and  dwarfs  them,  while  tribes  of  the 
same  descent,  but  more  favorably  placed,  are  well- 
formed,  active  and  intelligent. 

Europeans,  who,  by  their  enterprise  and  valor, 
have   made   noticeable   maritime  conquests,   have 


66  Degeneracy  in   Tcncrncnt  Ho7tses. 

through  unfavorable  surroundings  fallen  behind  the 
very  savages  their  ancestors  have  subdued. 

A  most  appalling  illustration  of  the  low  type  of 
humanity  into  which  whole  communities  may  de- 
generate from  want  of  pure  air,  water,  light  and 
food,  is  afforded  by  the  disgustingly  deformed  and 
idiotic  cretins,  found  in  great  numbers  at  the  base 
of  great  mountains  and  in  deep  valleys,  with  the 
air  stagnant,  in  certain  localities  of  Germany, 
Switzerland,  France,  Italy,  Denmark,  Norway,  the 
Highlands  of  Scotland,  Turkey,  Russia,  China,  Su- 
matra, South  America,  etc. 

DEGENERACY  IN  TENEMENT  HOUSES. 

But  the  crowded  tenements  of  our  large  cities 
contain  all  the  elements  of  the  climatic  influences 
which  produce  cretins,  and  we  need  not  roam  the 
world  over  to  find  illustrations  of  permanent  types 
of  a  degraded  sort  of  humanity.  The  pauper  and 
criminal  class  show  all  the  characteristics  of  a  spe- 
cific low  type  of  humanity,  and  not  only  threaten 
our  future,  but  are  a  burden  to  the  present  gen- 
eration. 

How  unsound  must  be  our  general  condition 
and  how  unsafe  our  future,  with  half  our  dead 
dying  from  unnatural  causes,  with  three  millions 
of  avoidable  cases  of  sickness  per  annum,  half  a 
million  of  habitual  drunkards,  criminals  and  pau- 


The  Evolution  of  Education.  6^ 

pers — not  to  mention  an  army  of  defectives  of  every 
description. 

The  duty  of  Education  to  counteract  this  degen- 
eracy, and  the  system  it  must  pursue  to  reach  this 
important  end,  will  form  the  contents  of  the  follow- 
ing chapters. 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  EDUCATION. 

The  catechism  formed  once  the  entire  outfit  of 
the  school.  Education  meant  then  to  believe.  The 
reaction  followed,  and  Education  meant  next  to 
know.  This,  too,  was  found  hollow,  and  Education 
was  next  taken  for  teaching  us  how  and  what  to  be, 
which  again  ended  in  moral  formalism  and  in  a  re- 
fined sentimental  self-seeking.  We  expound  Edu- 
cation as  the  art  of  preserving  the  race  by  training 
us  what  to  do.  To  believe,  to  know,  to  be,  to  do,  and, 
finally,  the  synthesis  of  all  the  four  form  the  com- 
plete evolution  of  Education  springing  up  in  the 
order  of  the  human  faculties,  perception,  reason, 
emotion  and  the  will. 

The  three  distinct  ages  of  childhood,  boyhood 
or  girlhood,  and  youth  or  maidenhood,  indicate 
three  phases  of  Education.  In  the  first,  our  being 
is  to  be  developed  in  the  infant  training  school ;  in 
the  second,  the  opening  mind  is  to  be  furnished 
with  knowledge  in  the  common  school,  and  in  the 
third  we  are  to  be  set  to  work  in  the  school  of 


68  TJie  Ei'olittion  of  Education. 

industry  preparatory  to  life  we  are  about  to  enter. 
Our  being,  knowing  and  doing  are  to  be  determined 
at  these  three  different  ages.  Our  present  Edu- 
cation plainly  teaches  by  its  practice,  never  mind 
what  you  are  or  what  you  do,  if  you  only  are  know- 
ing; and,  hence,  cunning  rather  than  character  and 
useful  activity  is  fostered  by  our  schools. 

How  long,  oh  !  how  long  does  the  watchman  of 
the  night  cry,  When  shall  the  blind  see,  the  deaf 
hear,  the  dumb  speak,  the  simple  understand,  the 
lame  walk  forth,  the  sick  take  up  their  bed,  prison- 
ers go  free,  and  the  people's  dead  rise  ? 

How  long,  how  long?  does  the  voice  of  reason 
and  experience  respond  to  the  voice  of  the  watch- 
man in  the  night,  until  the  art  of  raising  men  will 
come  to  honor,  and  mothers  will  learn  how  to  edu- 
cate children,  and  children  will  be  trained  for  virtue 
and  activity  in  the  infant  sanctuaries  of  the  nation, 
and  young  men  will  be  prepared  in  temples  de- 
voted to  art  and  manual  skill  for  usefulness ;  until 
the  body  and  its  physical  powers  will  be  inured  to 
active  work.  Not  until  then  will  men  be  healthy 
and  honest,  will  the  blind  see,  the  deaf  hear,  the 
dumb  speak,  the  simple  understand,  the  prisoners 
go  free,  and  the  people's  dead  rise. 


PART  II. 

HEREDITY  AND  RACE  EDUCATION. 

History  joins  her  testimony  to  that  of  statis- 
tics, and  the  decay  of  Egypt,  Assyria,  Greece, 
Carthage,  Rome,  the  Byzantine  Empire  and  the 
Saracens  gives  evidence  of  the  deteriorating  ten- 
dency inherent  in  human  society. 

Only  an  Education  wisely  directing  its  efforts 
toward  counteracting  this  deterioration  can  delay 
the  death  of  a  nation. 

Despotisms,  aristocracies,  democracies  ;  in  short, 
distinctive  forms  of  government  have  distinctive 
vicious  tendencies,  so  have  the  different  pursuits — 
as  agriculture,  manufacturing,  commerce,  or  the  dif- 
ferent stages  of  civilization  ;  and  each  of  these  vary- 
ing conditions  requires  a  distinctive  system  of  Edu- 
cation for  counteracting  its  peculiar  degenerative 
tendencies. 

As  the  masses  live  under  conditions  tending 
almost  universally  toward  their  deterioration,  Edu- 
cation must  directly  aim  to  counteract  this  dete- 
rioration through  measures  leading  to  hereditary  im- 
provement.    The  principle  of  heredity  or  the  trans- 

(69) 


70  Heredity. 

missibility  of  structural  peculiarities  from  parent  to 
offspring  has  already  been  recognized  by  Hippoc- 
rates, and  has  been  fully  established  by  Darwin 
and  other  naturalists.  The  principle  of  heredity 
has  been  fully  discussed  in  regard  to  genius  by 
Galton  ;  in  regard  to  psychological  morbidity  by 
Lucas,  Despine  and  Mireau  ;  in  regard  to  crime  by 
Bruce  Thompson ;  in  regard  to  insanity  by  Morel, 
Maudsley  and  others,  and  in  a  more  general  way 
by  Herbert  Spencer,  Ribot  and  others. 

Nobody  doubts  but  that  the  general  nature  of 
the  parent  is  transmitted  to  the  child.  That  less 
important  peculiarities  are  transmissible  is  not  so 
plain,  nevertheless  established.  Many  families  have 
been  known  in  which  four,  five  and  six  generations 
had  more  or  less  than  five  fingers  on  each  hand. 
Baldness,  defective  teeth,  deafness,  cataract,  have 
been  known  to  be  congenital,  and  the  gout,  con- 
sumption and  insanity  are  universally  so ;  other 
affections  are  more  or  less  so,  and  nervousness  in 
parents  generally  appears  in  the  children. 

Singular  habits  are  often  formed  through  pecul- 
iar surroundings,  and  give  rise  to  peculiar  structural 
formations.  Domestic  birds  that  have  no  use  for 
flying  lose  the  power  of  the  wing.  Cave  fishes, 
like  moles,  lose  the  organ  of  sight  almost  entirely. 
Domestic  animals,  which  are  not  exposed  to  hostile 
attacks  from  other  animals  and  do  not  raise  their 


Heredity.  yi 

external  ear  in  the  act  of  spying  the  feared  danger, 
lose  the  power  of  doing  so  just  as  man  has  lost  it ; 
and,  hence,  the  importance  of  fostering  mental 
habits,  as  attention,  reflection,  self- observation, 
will,  etc.,  as  these  habits  condition  corresponding 
structural  peculiarities  in  the  brain,  become  trans- 
missible, and,  after  ages,  permanent  features  of  the 
race. 

That  even  newly  acquired  habits  are  transmis- 
sible has  been  established  beyond  contradiction. 
It  is  maintained,  with  much  reason,  that  merely 
the  predisposition  to  disease  and  malformation, 
insanity,  dipsomania,  crime,  consumption,  etc.,  is 
transmitted  and  only  developed  under  conditions 
favoring  the  formation  of  these  peculiarities.  This 
explains  why  often  the  peculiarity  which  appeared 
in  the  parent  does  not  appear  in  all  the  children, 
and  often  shows  itself  only  after  two,  three  and 
four  generations,  when  surrounding  conditions  con- 
spire with  the  innate  tendency  they  make  actual. 

Let  the  educator  bear  in  mind  that  human  de- 
terioration can  only  be  prevented  by  calling  to  his 
aid  influences  adverse  to  the  development  of  un- 
desirable hereditary  tendencies,  and  that  the  im- 
provement of  mankind  can  only  be  secured  by  con- 
ditions favorable  to  the  development  of  desirable 
hereditary  tendencies. 

It  is  not  often  that  the  one  or  the  other  set  of 


72  Hcrtdity. 

qualities  is  so  unalterably  fixed  in  the  mind  of  the 
child  as  to  leave  nothing  to  be  done  by  Education. 

We  are  the  work  of  two  factors — of  innate  ten- 
dencies, which  are  the  work  of  nature,  and  of  sur- 
roundings and  habits,  which  are  the  work  of  man 
and  of  Education. 

Heredity  and  human  agency  have  each  their 
limits,  which  it  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  in  order  to 
avoid  opposite,  but  equally  dangerous  mistakes. 
We  cannot  do  all,  but  neither  is  our  agency  re- 
duced to  nothing.  Only  by  realizing  the  power  of 
heredity  as  well  as  the  power  of  external  condi- 
tions, are  we  sure  to  press  both  into  the  service  of 
mankind  and  thereby  prevent  human  deteriora- 
tion. 

We  hold  with  Dr.  Carter  that  the  habit  of  exer- 
cising the  judgment  increases  the  power  of  this 
intellectual  operation  by  stimulating  the  growth 
of  its  nervous  organ,  and  that,  as  a  general  rule,  a 
man  s  brain  grows  to  the  kind  of  activity  most  habit- 
ual  to  it — whether  sensational  or  intellectual — and 
a  tendency  to  the  character  thus  impressed  upon  it 
is  transmitted  in  some  measure  to  his  offspring. 
Or,  as  Darwin  and  Herbert  Spencer  show,  external 
influences  may  considerably  change  functions  which 
in  their  turn  modify  the  organ  which  becomes  per- 
manent and  fixed  in  the  race  through  heredity. 

Our  mental  powers  have  attained  their  present 


Heredity.  73 

perfection  through  the  cumulative  or  hereditary 
effect  of  a  thousand  generations,  and  are  as  capa- 
ble of  hereditary  improvement  in  the  future  as 
they  have  been  in  the  past. 

It  is  high  time  the  hereditary  tendency  of  mental 
characteristics  be  intelligently  applied  in  the  Edu- 
cation of  the  race.  The  presumption  is  that,  as  the 
organ  is  hereditary,  the  function  must  be  so,  too. 
Thinking  improves  the  brain  under  certain  condi- 
tions, and  with  the  improved  brain  the  thinking  is 
transmitted.  Dr.  Gall  has  maintained  as  much  sixty 
years  ago,  and  Auguste  Comte  recognizes  the  fact. 
Thomas  Buckle  was  still  in  doubt,  but  observation 
has  established  the  hereditary  nature  of  our  moral 
and  intellectual  faculties.  Both  Senecaswere  noted 
for  their  extraordinary  memories.  So  were  An- 
naeus,  father  and  son ;  and  in  modern  times  the 
Porson  family.  The  hereditary  nature  of  the  imagi- 
nation is  illustrated  by  the  poetic  eminence  of 
the  Greek  poets  Sophocles,  his  son  and  grandson ; 
Aristophanes,  the  famous  comic  poet,  and  his  three 
sons ;  Ariosto,  of  the  "  Orlando  Furioso,"  his 
brother,  Gabriel,  and  his  nephew,  Horace ;  Tasso, 
the  renowned  author  of  "  Jerusalem  Delivered," 
and  Bernardo  Tasso,  his  father,  the  greatest  poet 
of  his  time,  though  eclipsed  by  his  great  son  ; 
music  has  descended  through  two  centuries  in  the 
family  of  the  Bachs. 
4 


74  Heredity. 

The  family  history  of  scientific  men  shows  the 
intellect  just  as  subject  to  the  law  of  heredity 
as  the  imagination ;  an  observation  holding  true 
from  Aristotle  down  to  Darwin,  and  of  which  we 
will  cite  a  few  instances.  Jacques  Bernouilli,  a  dis- 
tinguished mathematician  and  scientist,  had  two 
sons,  four  grandsons  and  two  great-grandsons  equal- 
ly renowned  in  one  or  another  branch  of  science. 
Cassini,  a  celebrated  astronomer,  had  a  son,  grand- 
son, great-grandson  and  a  great-great-grandson,  all 
distinguished  astronomers  and  naturalists.  Euler, 
the  celebrated  mathematician,  had  a  father  and 
three  sons,  all  great  mathematicians.  Gregory,  the 
distinguished  mathematician,  counted  fifteen  mem- 
bers of  scientific  ability  in  his  family.  Sir  William 
Herschel,  the  renowned  astronomer,  his  son,  John 
Herschel,  his  daughter  and  two  grandsons,  are 
among  hundreds  of  illustrations  of  the  principle 
of  heredity.' 

The  will-power,  prominent  in  statesmen  and  sol- 
diers, follows  the  same  law,  as  is  manifest  from 
the  names  of  the  Adams,  Colberts,  Foxes,  Guises, 
Medicis,  Pitts,  Peels,  Richelieus,  Walpoles,  Charle- 
magne, Collignys,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  Maurice  of 
Nassau,  and  many  other  equally  distinguished  fami- 
lies. 

It  is  not  pleasant  to  dwell  upon  the  shady  side 
of  human  nature,  or  we  could  cite  as  many  illustra- 


Heredity.  75 

tions  of  the  hereditary  nature  of  drunkenness,  theft, 
suicide,  homicide  and  other  crimes  and  vices.  We 
shall  illustrate  this  tendency  by  the  sketch  of  one 
or  two  unfortunate  families. 

Jean  Chretien  shows  the  following  descendants 
by  three  sons : 

Two  grandsons  condemned  for  life  to  hard  labor 
for  robbery  and  murder;  one  grandson  condemned 
to  death ;  one  great-grandson  transported  for  rob- 
bery ;  one  great-grandson  died  in  prison  guilty  of 
many  robberies ;  one  great-grandson  died  falling 
from  a  roof  he  was  scaling  in  the  attempt  of  rob- 
bery ;  one  great-grandson  died  guilty  of  many  rob- 
beries ;  two  great-granddaughters  died  in  prison, 
where  they  were  sent  for  theft ;  one  great-great- 
grandson  condemned  to  death  for  murder  and 
robbery. 

Bruce  Thompson  tells  of  904  convicts  at  Perth, 
404  of  whom  were  recommitted.  In  a  house  of 
detention  were  109  convicts  belonging  to  50  fami- 
lies, and  8  members  of  one  family. 

A  most  striking  illustration  of  hereditary  degen- 
eracy offers  the  Thirtieth  Annual  Report  of  the 
Prison  Association  of  the  State  of  New  York. 

The  Juke  family,  located  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  is  descended  from  five  sisters  who  were  born 
1 720-1 740,  and  counts  among  its  members  140 
criminals  and  offenders,  60  habitual  thieves  and  50 


^6  Race  Education  Defined. 

common  prostitutes.  Seven  murders  have  been 
committed  by  this  family,  and  one  and  forty  years 
have  been  spent  by  it  inside  the  prison. 

The  reporter  of  this  case  asks:  "  Do  our  courts, 
our  laws,  our  almshouses  and  our  jails  deal  with 
the  question  presented?"  To  us  it  seems,  when 
once  the  problem  reaches  the  court,  the  almshouse 
or  the  jail,  it  is  already  too  late,  and  matters  but 
little  how  they  deal  with  it.  The  far  more  impor- 
tant query  is,  does  our  system  of  Education  deal 
with  this  question  ?  Shall  we,  by  example,  sur- 
roundings and  judicious  training,  produce  gener- 
ations of  F6nelons,  Franklins  and  Aragos,  or  let 
heredity  uncontrolled  breed  families  and  gener- 
ations of  the  Chretien  and  Juke  style,  and  bank- 
rupt humanity? 

RACE   EDUCATION   DEFINED. 

But  Education  to  be  hereditary  must  be  some- 
thing different  than  a  mere  cramming  process. 
True  Education  is  the  constitutional  improvement 
of  the  whole  man.  Man,  and  not  scholarship,  is 
the  aim  of  Education.  The  constitutional  improve- 
ment of  man  is  effected  by  the  training  of  the  body, 
the  senses  and  the  functions  of  the  brain  to  the 
highest  degree  of  power  and  active  use. 

This  training  must  take  place  in  the  formative 
period  of  earliest  infancy,  in  order  to  improve  the 


Race  Education  Defined.  yy 

very  organization,  that  it  may  work  rightly  and 
automatically  through  life. 

Education  must  be  functional  and  affect  the  or- 
ganization of  man,  if  it  is  to  be  hereditary. 

Education,  when  hereditary,  is  not  lost  with 
the  individual,  but  is  what  it  ought  to  be — Race 
Education. 

Education,  when  so  constituted  as  to  become 
hereditary  in  its  effects,  forms  a  truly  National 
Education. 

An  Education  that  affects  the  constitution  of 
man  through  habitual  training  in  the  formative 
period  of  earliest  infancy,  forms  man's  character ; 
and  if  the  training  is  of  the  right  sort,  it  makes 
him  a  good  man ;  and  a  like  training  of  the  whole 
people  forms  a  noble  national  character. 

The  practical  training  of  the  eye,  the  ear,  the 
hand,  the  intellect  and  the  will  in  the  formative 
period  of  earliest  infancy  makes  an  effective,  indus- 
trious individual,  and  a  like  general  training  renders 
a  nation  industrious,  inventive  and  prosperous. 
Our  bookish  Education  keeps  us  from  observing 
and  using  our  senses  with  accuracy — a  power  of 
universal  usefulness,  and  yet  so  rare. 

The  present  bringing  up  called  by  a  misnomer 
Education,  neglecting  the  child  in  the  formative, 
and,  therefore,  most  susceptible  and  assimilative 
period  of  its  earliest  infancy,  fails  to  form  its  char- 


78  Race  Education  Defined. 

acter  or  to  develop  its  powers ;  it  fills  the  world 
with  conceptions  lacking  execution,  aspirations  un- 
satisfied, promises  unfulfilled,  beautiful  theories  and 
poor  practice,  and,  hence,  the  conflict  between  the 
ideal  and  the  real,  which  constitutes  the  contradic- 
tion and  the  misery  of  the  times. 

Education  must  put  the  child  to  work ;  for  by- 
work  man  is  perfected.  And  what  he  does  not 
achieve,  he  never  comprehends ;  and,  hence,  the 
barrenness  of  the  word-learning  of  the  schools. 
It  profits  but  little  the  individual,  and  none  at  all 
the  race  or  nation. 

Habit  and  heredity,  judiciously  controlled,  ame- 
liorate man ;  left  to  themselves  they  deteriorate 
him. 

We  have  to  this  day  neglected  to  aim  at  the 
cumulative  effect  of  Education  through  the  prin- 
ciple of  heredity,  and  have  failed  to  secure  as  great 
an  abundance  of  good  and  wise  men,  inventors, 
statesmen  and  sages  as  we  might,  while  the  vicious 
have  even  by  the  power  of  this  principle  spread 
themselves  through  generations  until  they  threaten 
to  curse  the  nation  with  a  brood  of  criminals,  pau- 
pers and  imbeciles. 

There  is  something  of  the  infinite  in  moral  obli- 
gation ;  and  our  duty  toward  the  present,  to  be 
rightly  performed,  must  take  in  the  remotest  fu- 
ture.    The  solidarity  of  mankind  extends  through 


Race  Education  Defined.  79 

all  time  as  through  all  space,  or  as  far  as  man's 
existence  spreads.  Only  when  based  upon  the 
principle  of  heredity  we  shall  educate  man  for  the 
future  of  the  race,  will  the  individual  be  blessed  in 
his  present  relations ;  while  an  Education  that  ig- 
nores the  future  of  the  race  sacrifices  likewise  the 
true  interests  of  the  individual  and  of  the  present, 
which  are  inseparably  linked  to  the  whole  of  hu- 
manity. 

Only  when  national  infant  schools  will  watch 
over,  cultivate  and  direct  the  growth  of  the  bodies 
and  souls  of  the  dear  little  ones  of  the  nation  ;  and 
the  future  mothers  of  the  race,  instead  of  being 
unsexed  in  factories,  will  be  trained  in  these  na- 
tional schools  for  their  truly  noble  work  in  the 
nursery,  will  our  homes  be  co-workers  with  our 
schools ;  and  people  and  teachers  will  form  one 
great  educational  association,  joining  heart,  head 
and  hand  in  the  great  national  work  of  rearing  up 
the  rising  generation. 

Only  when  the  principle  of  heredity  will  be  made 
the  foundation  of  a  system — which  will  be  the  Edu- 
cation of  the  race  and  the  nation  as  well  as  of  the 
individual — will  men  of  enlarged  capacities  of  head 
and  heart  consecrate  themselves  to  the  work  of 
Education,  which  under  their  hands  will  no  more 
be  a  thoughtless  routine,  but  science,  life  and  prac- 
tice.    There  was  a  heathen  age,  when  it  was  the 


So  Ract'  a7id  Scholastic  Education. 

ambition  of  the  great  and  the  wise  to  guide  and 
teach  the  young,  who  grew  up  to  men  worthy  of 
their  teachers,  who  were  sages  ;  that  time  must  and 
will  come  again,  and  then  humanity  will  be  blessed. 

Nothing  but  a  thorough,  consistent  and  well- 
directed  Race  Education  will  free  the  masses  from 
the  blight  of  pauperism,  madness  and  crime,  and 
remove  from  us  the  disorganizing  selfishness  and 
incapacity  for  good  that  sadden  us  on  every  side. 

Education  at  public  expense,  directed  by  the  na- 
tion, must  be  national,  securing  the  perpetuity  of 
the  commonwealth  and  the  well-being  of  the 
masses,  and  that  can  only  be  achieved  by  hered- 
itary Race  Education,  which  is  improving  the 
quality  and  increasing  the  energy  of  every  God- 
given  power  of  the  body  and  soul  of  man. 

RACE   AND   SCHOLASTIC   EDUCATION. 

Race  Education  is  the  only  solution  of  the  great 
social  problem  arising  from  hereditary  defective- 
ness and  the  consequent  increase  of  pauperism, 
misery,  crime  and  insanity. 

While  our  routine  Education  is  scholastic,  exer- 
cising the  memory  at  the  expense  of  every  other 
faculty  and  to  the  injury  of  the  force  of  body  and 
soul,  Race  Education,  or  Hereditary  Culture,  is 
hygiene  applied  to  the  physical,  mental  and  moral 
nature  of  man. 


Race  and  Scholastic  Education.  8i 

Race  Education,  by  training  the  present  genera- 
tion, determines  the  condition  of  the  next  one ;  it 
watches  over  the  first  hours  and  days  of  man,  when 
the  foundations  of  his  character  are  laid  ;  it  watches 
with  unwearying  soHcitude  over  the  waive  in  its 
charge,  as  a  mother  does  over  her  babe. 

Race  Education  makes  physical  culture  the  basis 
of  its  future  operations ;  and,  hence,  gymnastics 
form  an  important  part  of  its  system. 

Race  Education,  by  its  own  hygienic  tendency, 
inures  the  people  to  an  habitual  observance  of  the 
sanitary  laws  of  body  and  mind,  and  secures  there- 
by the  health  and  strength  of  the  nation. 

Race  Education,  or  Hereditary  Culture,  makes 
the  practice  of  art  and  industry  integral  parts  of 
its  system  ;  first,  because  activity  is  health,  and, 
secondly,  because  activity  transforms  the  physical 
world  into  things  of  beauty  and  use,  which,  in  their 
turn,  become  means  of  a  more  perfect  life  ;  while 
the  scholastic  system  has  its  eye  fixed  upon  an  ar- 
tificial literary  standard,  unconcerned  about  life, 
health  and  power,  and  is  entirely  theoretical  and 
notional. 

Race  Education,  or  Hereditarj^  Culture,  as  it  dif- 
fers from  scholastic  Education  in  aim  and  method, 
so  it  differs  from  it  in  the  objects  of  knowledge,  or 
the  subjects  it  gives  prominence  to  in  its  course  of 
instruction.     It  cultivates  the  study  of  hygiene,  of 


83       Race  and  Scholastic  Eduiation  CoDiparcd. 

nature,  art,  industry,  economics  and  government, 
whatever  concerns  life  and  action,  and  looks  to  the 
future  of  man  ;  while  scholastic  Education  concerns 
itself  about  words,  opinions,  archaeological  lore,  and 
looks  to  the  past. 

Race  Education,  or  Hereditary  Culture,  consid- 
ers function,  organization,  power,  work  and  charac- 
ter, or  a  complete  human  existence,  as  the  end,  and 
knowledge  as  but  one  of  the  means  for  securing 
this  end. 

RACE   AND   SCHOLASTIC   EDUCATION   COMPARED. 

Race  Education,  or  Hereditary  Culture,  aiming 
at  mental  quality  is  averse  to  stuffing  by  lectures 
or  text  books.  The  mind  must  be  exercised  on 
the  object  of  thought  in  the  only  natural  and  old 
Socratic  way  by  dialogue,  which  alone  develops  the 
power  of  thought,  and  by  showing  the  student  how 
to  find  knowledge  in  and  by  himself,  makes  it  part 
of  himself  and  a  possession  forever. 

It  was  not  books,  but  the  discourse,  says  Thorn- 
ton, that  developed  the  Grecian  mind  for  the  ap- 
preciation of  Eschylus  and  orators  of  the  metal  of 
Demosthenes. 

Race  Education,  caring  above  all  for  man,  chooses 
subjects  and  methods  of  instruction  suited  to  the 
age  and  the  development  of  the  faculties  of  judg- 
ment, reason,  sensibility,  invention  or  imagination. 


Race  and  Scholastic  Education  Compared.       83 

The  scholastic  system,  caring  more  for  scholar- 
ship than  for  man,  adopts  methods  calculated  for 
the  promotion  of  learning,  unconcerned  about  the 
effect  upon  man,  as  it  cares  more  about  a  complete 
body  of  rules  of  Latin  composition  or  Greek  par- 
ticles, than  about  the  body  and  soul  of  humanity. 

Race  Education,  aiming  at  a  harmoniously  de- 
veloped and  happy  humanity,  recognizes  the  claims 
of  the  young  to  the  happy  days  of  childhood^ 
which  it  will  not  sacrifice  for  the  sake  of  produc- 
ing intellectual  prodigies. 

Race  Education,  or  Hereditary  Culture,  direct- 
ing its  efforts  against  human  deterioration,  guards 
against  premature  mental  strains  in  infancy ;  it 
takes  measures  against  the  mental  equilibrium 
disturbing  predominance  of  one  faculty  over  an- 
other ;  it  aims  at  soundness  and  efficiency  all  over, 
which  secure  the  present  success  and  happiness  of 
the  individual  as  well  as  the  health  and  strength 
of  the  race  in  the  future ;  while  our  scholastic 
Education,  which  has  only  in  view  the  individual 
and  its  accomplishments,  cultivates  the  memory 
and  imagination  at  the  cost  of  the  highest  reason- 
ing and  moral  faculties,  and  makes  men  selfish, 
proud  and  unjust ;  and,  hence,  the  strife,  ambi- 
tion, disappointment,  increase  of  insanity,  suicide, 
premature  d(  ath  and  social  decay,  so  glaring  in 
our  day. 


84       Race  and  Scholastic  Education  Compared. 

Our  chiefly  literary  Education  stimulates  mostly 
emotion  and  fancy,  which  are  the  life  of  the  pas- 
sions, and  it  secures  the  application  of  the  student 
by  working  upon  his  piide,  and  thus  nurses  the 
flame  which  consumes  us  ;  for  pride  or  morbid 
selfishness  is  half  insanity,  and  passions  uncon- 
trolled are  insanity  complete  ;  and  pride  and  pas- 
sion, as  they  disorganize  the  human  economy,  so 
they  disorganize  the  social ;  and,  hence,  our  charge 
against  the  doubly  fatal  tendency  of  our  scholas- 
tic Education  upon  the  individual  as  well  as  upon 
society. 

However  loyal  schoolmen  may  be  in  i\\eory 
to  the  principles  of  development  in  Education,  do 
they  recognize  them  in  practice?  Do  they  give 
due  weight  to  the  training  of  the  physical  forces, 
the  senses,  and,  especially,  to  the  moral  faculties 
and  the  powers  of  observation,  invention  and  prac- 
tical execution  or  industrial  skill  ? 

Do  they  supremely  aim  at  forming  sound  minds 
in  sound  bodies,  which  help  themselves  by  efficient 
hands,  restrained  from  working  injury  to  others 
by  fortified  morals  and  habits  of  honesty  ? 

As  all  evils  tend  to  race  deterioration,  and  not 
infrequently  spring  from  it,  Education,  the  great 
social  preserver,  has  to  be  moulded  in  every  par- 
ticular, in  aim,  means,  method,  scope  and  surround- 
ings, in  keeping  with  tl  e   one  great  aim  of  race 


Race  and  Scholasiic  Education  Compared.       85 

amelioration  or  Hereditary  Culture,  to  which  every 
part  of  Education  must  tend  as  the  radius  points 
to  the  centre. 

Our  scholastic  tattooing,  with  all  its  ornaments 
and  accomplishments,  is  shallow  patchwork,  while 
Race  Education  recognizes  no  improvement  unless 
it  enters  the  blood  and  marrow  of  body  and  soul, 
and  becomes,  by  its  organic  nature,  hereditary. 

Unless  our  partly  ineffectual  and  partly  selfish 
culture  is  given  up  to  Race  Education,  Pariahs  will 
spring  up  among  us  stunned  in  body,  low  in  per- 
ception and  defective  in  moral  sensibility,  who  will 
drag  the  nation  into  the  vortex  of  their  own 
corruption ;  for  the  virtue  and  intelligence  of  a 
select  few  are  too  narrow  a  basis  for  a  great  nation 
to  stand  upon,  and  the  few  are  absorbed  by  the 
many. 

Upon  the  foundation  we  indicate  here,  physiolo- 
gists, psychologists,  statesmen  and  educators  must 
raise  a  system,  in  which  every  step  taken  shall 
advance  the  race  as  well  as  the  individual  in  very 
deed  and  forever. 

The  formation  of  desirable  hereditary  habits  does 
not  only  call  for  infant  schools,  but  also  for  long- 
continued  training.  To  render  the  association  of 
occupation  and  virtue  more  permanent,  we  must 
make  it  continuous  to  the  age  of  sixteen  or  eight- 
een years ;  this  alone  can  deepen  the  better  dispo- 


86       Race  and  Scholastic  Education  Compared. 

sition,  render  it  organic  and  hereditary,  and  thus 
improve  the  race  as  well  as  the  individual. 

Theoretical  knowledge  has  assumed  vast  propor- 
tions, and  its  power  and  efficiency  are  marvelous, 
where  physical  resistance  is  to  be  overcome  by 
mechanical  elements.  More  indefinite  is  the  power 
of  science  in  modifying  organizations,  which,  grow- 
ing from  within  and  averse  to  direct  external  inter- 
ference, yield  only  if  put  in  surroundings,  where 
they  may — as  if  it  were  at  will — seize  upon  the 
means  which  are  to  our  purpose  and  assimilate 
them  as  desired.  We  know  we  have  to  adapt  the 
medium  a  fauna  or  flora  lives  in  to  the  qualities 
we  wish  them  to  develop ;  and  yet,  when  we  deal 
with  the  cultivation  of  man,  we  fancy  that  we  can 
talk  him  into  virtue,  wisdom  and  efficiency,  without 
adapting  the  conditions  and  surroundings  to  the 
desired  end  ;  as  if,  like  savages  given  to  sorcery,  we 
believed  in  the  enchanting  power  of  magic  words 
and  formulas.  We  forget  that  our  actions  very 
much  depend  upon  our  affective  and  passional  nat- 
ure, which  almost  wholly  depends  on  the  organic 
functions,  in  their  turn  determined  by  the  nutritive 
condition  of  the  entire  state  of  the  body  and  mind. 
Dejection,  fear,  grief,  despair,  uncertainty,  anger, 
sorrow  and  the  like  affections,  disturb  the  organic 
functions,  which  in  their  turn  disturb  the  brain. 
And   yet  we  consider  the  brain  and  its  functions 


Race  and  Scholastic  E ducat ioti  Compared.       87 

as  if  they  were  independent  of  all  these  affec- 
tions. 

But,  if  the  outer  world  has  to  yield  the  elements 
for  a  healthy  nutrition,  the  individual  must,  by  an 
ever-active  habit,  contract  such  affections  and  men- 
tal tendencies  as  are  most  desirable  for  his  own  de- 
velopment and  that  of  the  race. 

Only  when  we  behold  in  our  Education  the  Edu- 
cation of  the  race  are  we  likely  to  see  in  our  con- 
tact with  men  and  nature  and  in  our  inner  and 
outer  experience,  grand  educational  influences,  the 
end  of  which  is  our  own  development  as  well  as 
the  culture  and  development  of  the  race. 

Men  cannot  be  talked  into  living  for  the  race ; 
they  must  be  trained  and  be  brought  up  for  the 
race,  and  they  will  live  for  the  race. 

Race  Education,  bringing  up  the  individual  for 
the  race,  develops  the  altruistic  feelings,  by  which 
we  feel  the  weal  or  woe  of  others  as  if  it  were  our 
own,  until  conscience  acts  as  an  unerring  and  spon- 
taneous force,  and  the  religion  of  doing  good  be- 
comes as  hereditary  among  men  as  brute  instinct 
among  animals. 

Does  our  position  that  the  individual  belongs  to 
the  race  want  a  proof?  Is  there  a  power  or  faculty 
in  him  that  has  not  descended  to  him  from  the 
race,  and  ought  he  not  to  make  a  faithful  return 
for  the  trust  with  which  he  has  been  honored? 


88       Race  and  Scholastic  Education  Compared. 

Humanity  has  hitherto  progressed  from  mere 
brutal  strength  to  intellectual  force,  and  must  ad- 
vance to  moral  power.  Violence  has  but  shifted 
the  scene  from  muscle  to  brain.  The  three  powers 
in  man  seem  to  have  divided  the  rule  of  the  ages 
among  themselves.  The  first  age  of  the  world 
belonged  to  the  brutal  force  in  man.  The  second 
age  belonged  to  reason.  The  empire  of  both 
these  powers  is  equally  remorseless.  The  third 
age  of  the  world  belongs  to  love,  which  rules  only 
to  serve. 

God  comes  to  us  in  humanity,  and,  above  all,  in 
helpless  children,  and  calls  upon  us  in  their  divine 
capabilities,  which  wait  for  our  maturing  them. 

Education  must  not  be  a  trade,  but  a  worship ; 
and  the  school  must  become  a  temple,  in  which 
the  teacher  officiating  at  the  altar  of  humanity, 
makes  a  sacrifice  of  himself  that  the  race  may  live 
a  better  and  happier  life. 

Science  pushes  us  to  these  conclusions.  For  every 
function  has  for  its  end  self-preservation  ;  and  the 
function  of  Education  must  have  for  its  purpose 
the  preservation  of  the  race,  and,  hence,  the  indi- 
vidual must  be  brought  up  not  for  ambition,  wealth 
or  power,  but  for  the  race.  If  we  lived  in  isolation 
like  animals,  their  brutal,  individual  Education 
might  do  for  us  as  for  them,  but  as  we  are  by  our 
families  and  states  linked  with  the  whole  of  hu- 


Race  and  Scholastic  Education  Compared.       89 

manity,  the  condition  of  the  race  determines  our 
own  preservation. 

Not  only  the  moral  law  with  its  sanctions  of  a 
sweet  inner  reward  or  remorse,  but  also  the  inex- 
orable law  of  physiology,  with  its  long  catalogue 
of  most  hideous  diseases,  enjoins  upon  us  Race 
Education,  or  Hereditary  Culture. 

The  importance  of  physical  Education  has  been 
insisted  upon  by  all  great  writers  on  Education,  so 
the  training  of  the  senses,  the  development  of  the 
mental  faculties,  the  formation  of  character  and 
the  strengthening  of  the  will,  so  have  the  means 
of  doing  this  great  work  been  tried  and  studied ; 
but,  though  the  highest  induction  contains  nothing 
but  what  lies  in  the  scattered  facts,  it  throws  a  flood 
of  light  upon  them,  and  so  will  the  principle  of 
Race  Education,  or  Hereditary  Culture,  give  defi- 
niteness  and  union  to  the  principles  and  practice  of 
Education,  which  it  will  guide  and  direct  by  keep- 
ing in  view  the  highest  aim,  by  inculcating  the 
subordination  of  the  individual  to  the  race,  of 
which  it  is  but  a  part  and  for  which  it  must  live 
and  be  educated. 

The  necessity  of  basing  Education  upon  the 
principle  of  race  amelioration  was  first  suggested 
to  us  by  the  overwhelming  evidence  of  an  actual 
deterioration  of  race,  forced  upon  us  by  a  patho- 
logical study  of  labor.     The  study  of  heredity  con- 


90  Sy sterns  of  Education. 

vinced  us,  in  the  next  place,  of  the  transmissibility 
of  improved  mental  states,  and,  therefore,  of  the 
practicability  of  race  amelioration  through  im- 
proved methods  of  Education. 

Our  doctrine  is  supported  on  every  page  of  Car- 
penter's remarkable  work  on  Mental  Physiology, 
which  must  suggest  our  doctrine  that  the  heredi- 
tary defectiveness  of  the  masses  must  be  corrected  by 
Education  and  Hereditary  Culture  ;  that  an  Educa- 
tion that  does  not  affect  its  subjects  organically  ana 
permanently — even  as  far  as  the  race  is  concernedy 
and  for  future  generations — is  not  deserving  the 
name  of  Education. 

This  is  our  principle  of  Education,  and  all  the 
means  and  appliances  of  study  and  training  of 
mind  and  body  must  tend  toward  it  as  the  planets 
do  to  the  sun. 

The  great  social  problem  of  the  condition  of  the 
masses,  the  latest  development  in  biology,  and  the 
progress  in  the  separate  parts  of  Education,  all  point 
to  the  doctrine  of  Race  Education,  or  Hereditary 
Culture,  as  the  principle  of  gravitation  of  a  strictly 
scientific  system  of  Education  upon  which  the  whole 
science — in  all  its  parts — is  to  be  reconstructed. 

SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

Others  before  us  have  laid  stress  upon  Educa- 
tion ;  have  singled  out  the  various  parts  of  Educa- 


Systems  of  Education.  9I 

tion  ;  have,  perhaps,  seen  in  part  the  importance 
of  our  principle,  as  Spurzheim  and  others  of  the 
same  school  ;  none,  however,  have  recognized  in  it 
the  principle  that  contains  all  others  and  much 
more  beside,  and  that  alone  is  comprehensive 
enough  to  rear  upon  a  complete  system  of  Edu- 
cation. 

Penn's  first  word  to  his  colony  was,  "  Educate," 
and  Washington's  last  bequest  in  his  farewell  ad- 
dress to  the  people  he  so  w'ell  loved,  was  again, 
"  Educate." 

Education,  says  R6nan,  is  with  modern  society 
a  question  of  life  and  death.  It  contains,  as  La- 
boulaye  says,  the  solution  of  the  problem  that 
troubles  the  age  we  live  in.  But  what  is  com- 
monly called  Education,  makes  of  us,  as  Goethe 
expressed  it,  bags  filled  with  words,  figures  and 
facts.  What  we  want  is  men  of  vigor,  action  and 
character.  "  It  is  the  early  training  that  makes 
the  master,"  sings  Germany's  great  national  poet. 
Strength,  will,  power,  mental  activity,  work  and  a 
harmoniously  developed  humanity  must  be  aimed 
at  in  Education — such  are  the  utterances  of  our 
great  thinkers. 

Our  higher  reason  is  but  the  accumulated  capital 
of  the  progress  of  the  ages,  says  science.  Thank- 
fully we  receive  at  the  hands  of  the  heroes  of  hu- 
man  progress  the  requisite  materia!  for  our  struct- 


92  Systejjis  of  Education. 

ure  of  Race  Education,  and  trace  step  by  step  our 
principle  in  their  labors. 

Already  the  Lacedemonians  gave  supreme  atten- 
tion to  the  physical  condition  of  the  parents. 

The  Old  Testament  almost  on  every  one  of  its 
pages,  lays  stress  upon  the  early  training  of  the 
young. 

The  genealogical  history  of  individuals  and  fam- 
ilies proves  the  truth  of  the  heredity  of  mental 
traits.  Physiology  teaches  that  systematic  think- 
ing enlarges  the  brain,  and  craniology  establishes 
this  principle  by  the  exact  measurements  of  the 
skulls  of  races  and  ages  belonging  to  different 
stages  of  civilization.  We  acknowledge  our  in- 
debtedness for  these  and  other  labors. 

Happiness,  truth,  goodness,  activity,  reasonable- 
ness, virtue,  God-likeness,  etc.,  are  unquestionably 
important  elements,  but  they  lack  direction,  defi- 
niteness,  compass  and  scientific  basis  ;  they  con- 
tain no  principle  that  secures  what  they  aim  at, 
and  each  and  every  one  of  them  considers  only  the 
individual,  who,  if  he  is  to  live  for  humanity,  must 
be  educated  for  it. 

There  is  not  a  principle  suggested  by  our  system 
but  has  the  support  of  the  earliest  thinkers  of  the 
race. 

The  divine  Plato  largely  discourses  how  manners 
are  implanted  in  early  infancy,  and  virtue  gathers 


Systems  of  Education.  93 

strength  from  habit.  He  insisted  upon  bringing 
together  children  from  three  to  six  years  of  age  for 
the  purpose  of  being  trained  at  their  self-originated 
games.  He  already  considered  compulsory  Educa- 
tion the  safeguard  of  the  State.  Careful  training 
in  gymnastics,  music  and  science  he  insists  upon 
as  the  means  for  the  attainment  of  strength  and 
beauty  of  mind  and  body,  so  highly  prized  among 
the  Greeks. 

Aristotle,  who  furnished  the  world  with  its  intel- 
lectual food  for  over  two  thousand  years,  like  his 
great  master,  urges  State  Education  to  begin  in 
early  childhood,  the  very  playthings  of  which 
should  have  a  bearing  upon  the  life  and  work  of 
the  man,  whose  ethical  culture  must  be  secured 
by  early  habits  of  right  feeling  and  correct  ac- 
tion, under  teachers  of  political  knowledge,  whose 
aim  must  be  not  to  form  merely  useful,  but  per- 
fect men,  by  the  means  of  art,  science  and  dis- 
cipline, the  tools  of  Education. 

Plutarch,  in  his  inimitable  essay  on  Education, 
tells  us  of  Lycurgus  showing  the  Lacedemonians 
in  a  public  meeting  the  effect  of  early  training  on 
two  dogs  of  the  same  dam,  the  one  running  to  the 
platter,  and  the  other  starting  after  the  hare  ;  the 
one  made  voracious,  and  the  other  an  excellent 
hunter. 

Early   exercise,    says    the    same    author,    gives 


94  Systems  of  Education. 

strength  ;  good  habits  lead  to  virtue,  and  wisdom 
leads  to  happiness  and  a  good  old  age. 

Training  of  body  and  soul  from  earliest  infancy, 
the  solid  things  of  science,  the  living  example  of 
parents  and  teachers,  and  upon  the  like  topics, 
Plutarch  gave  us  in  these  essays  his  thoughts  with 
a  freshness,  which  makes  them  delightful  reading 
to-day. 

Montaigne  said  :  "  Bookish  learning  is  a  poor 
stock  to  go  upon."  Again,  he  said :  "  Our  under- 
standings are  no  more  formed  by  learning  by  rote 
what  other  men  said  than  we  learn  riding,  han- 
dling an  axe  or  playing  a  tune,  by  discourses  with- 
out practice." 

Lord  Bacon  said  :  "  Our  speeches  take  after  our 
learning,  our  thoughts  after  our  inclinations,  and 
our  deeds  after  our  habits,  which  are  fixed  by  the 
force  of  early  custom." 

Milton  indignantly  descants  against  the  waste  of 
time  in  our  schools  with  a  miserable  little  Latin 
and  Greek,  and  pleads  for  a  virtuous  and  noble 
Education,  consisting  in  studies,  exercises,  diet  and 
music,  likest  to  those  ancient  and  famous  schools 
of  Pythagoras,  Plato,  Isocrates,  Aristotle  and  oth- 
ers, and  of  whom  were  bred  such  a  number  of  re- 
nowned philosophers,  orators,  historians,  poets  and 
statesmen. 

John  Locke  held  that  a  sound  mind  in  a  sound 


Systems  of  Education.  95 

body  —  as  already  Juvenal  aptly  expressed  it  —  is 
the  chiefest  happiness,  and,  hence,  the  chiefest  care 
of  Education.  Education  makes  the  man,  and  the 
commonest  and  weakest  impressions  in  childhood 
have  most  important  and  permanent  consequences 
for  us.  Morals  and  good  habits  come  first,  the 
knowledge  of  things  next,  and  languages  last.  The 
treatment  should  be  mild,  natural  and  suited  to  the 
temperament,  inclination  and  character  of  the  child, 
which  the  educator  has  to  study  carefully. 

Leibnitz,  who,  by  the  universality  of  his  genius, 
has  thrown  out  many  ideas  ahead  of  his  age,  ad- 
vanced the  teaching  of  the  arts  and  trades  in  public 
schools  as  a  matter  of  highest  utility  to  the  State. 

Montesquieu  said.  Education  has  for  its  founda- 
tion the  same  principles  as  the  State — fear  under 
despotism,  pride  under  a  monarchy,  and  virtue  un- 
der a  republic.  And  since  virtue  is  formed  by  early 
habit,  a  republic  must  train  children  to  simplicity 
and  self-restraint.  Attachment  to  the  laws  of  the 
country  demands  a  preference  of  the  public  good 
to  narrow  self-interest.  Everybody  participates  in 
a  free  country  in  the  government  of  the  State,  and 
must  love  to  preserve  it.  Nothing  but  virtue  and 
intelligence  can  save  a  republic  from  ending  in 
despotism,  corruption  and  anarchy. 

As  the  great  Cominius,  the  John  the  Baptist  of 
universal  Education,  was  the  apostle  of  the  study 


96  Sj's/c//is  of  Education. 

of  method,  to  the  spread  of  which  all  over  Europe 
his  agitated  life  has  been  devoted,  so  was  Rousseau 
a  hundred  years  later  the  apostle  of  the  study  of 
the  child  and  its  nature.  According  to  him,  the 
full  activity  of  our  senses  and  faculties  and  the 
skill  of  acquiring  knowledge  are  the  ends  of  Edu- 
cation and  are  to  be  attained  by  actual  observa- 
tion, but  not  by  mere  words  thrust  upon  children, 
to  whom  they  have  no  meaning  and  whom  they 
can  but  stupefy.  Like  Locke,  Rousseau  insists 
upon  the  propriety  of  every  child  learning  a  trade, 
which  not  only  bestows  independence,  but  culti- 
vates reflection  far  more  than  books  do  at  that  age. 

Basedow,  who  first  reduced  to  practice  whatever 
was  tangible  in  Rousseau's  "  Emile,"  insisted  equal- 
ly upon  his  pupils  to  engage  at  least  two  hours  daily 
in  the  mechanical  exercise  of  some  useful  trade. 

None  lived  in  deeper  sympathy  with  the  race, 
shared  its  miseries,  loved  it  more  truly,  or  worked 
more  earnestly  for  elevating  and  saving  it  through 
life-long  labor  in  the  schoolroom,  than  Pestalozzi, 
and  none  has  effectually  more  reformed  our  system 
of  Education  than  he.  He  has  clearly  worked  out 
the  principles  of  developmental  Education,  object 
teaching  and  the  whole  modern  system  of  primary 
Education  ;  and  he,  above  all,  is  the  prophet  of  the 
school  house  and  the  schoolmaster  of  Europe. 

Man's  love  of  liberty,  says  Kant,  is  so  strong  that 


Systems  of  Education.  97 

if  he  is  not  early  subjected  to  discipline,  he  inclines, 
especially  under  a  free  government,  to  lawlessness, 
which  is  barbarity.  To  habituate  the  child  to  sub- 
mission to  reason  is  the  first  aim  of  Education, 
which  must  lead  the  race  to  its  highest  destiny, 
the  development  of  its  faculties.  The  great  phi- 
losopher of  Konigsberg  insisted  that  the  child  is 
not  to  be  educated  for  the  world  as  it  is,  that  it 
may  get  along  in  it,  but  that  it  must  be  brought 
up  for  humanity  and  a  better  future ;  and  that  a 
bringing  us  up  for  the  good  of  the  world  cannot 
injure  us  in  our  own  life.  Education  is  discipline 
or  correction,  culture  or  instruction,  and  exercise 
of  the  faculties  of  prudence  and  wisdom,  and  at 
last  the  formation  of  the  moral  disposition  or  of 
character.  The  child  must  learn  to  use  its  freedom 
and  its  powers,  act  upon  principles  and  develop  its 
character  by  order  and  steadiness.  Work  is  the 
chief  element  in  human  life ;  the  school  should, 
therefore,  train  children  to  work,  and  as  this  re- 
quires strength  and  energy,  physical  exercise  must 
form  the  prelude  to  Education,  and  is  a  chief  part 
of  it.  So  far  the  founder  of  the  critical  school  of 
philosophy  of  Germany. 

Mackintosh  wisely  says.  Education  is  a  proper 
disposal  of  all  the  circumstances  which  influence 
character,   and   of  the   means  of  producing  those 
habitual  dispositions  which  insure  well-doing. 
5 


98  Systc7ns  of  Education. 

According  to  Froebel,  indolence,  love  of  pleas- 
ure, want  of  sense  and  energy,  lead  to  vice  and 
crime.  He  insists,  therefore,  upon  work,  as  activity- 
takes  delight  in  its  own  creation,  and  develops 
intelligence  and  energy  of  will.  Rousseau,  Pesta- 
lozzi,  and  others  before  them,  have  seen  that  work 
develops  virtue.  None  but  Froebel  has  realized 
all  the  applications  this  principle  is  capable  of  de- 
veloping in  man.  The  Kindergarten  is  the  door 
by  which  we  re-enter  the  garden  of  Eden.  As 
work  was  the  first  means  in  educating  the  race, 
when  the  soil  was  cursed  with  sterility  that  man 
might  be  blessed  through  work,  so  in  the  Education 
of  the  individual,  work  is  the  first  means  of  blessing 
him  ;  and  the  restless  activity  of  the  child  is  the 
foundation  of  the  indefatigable  enterprise  of  the 
man.  Industry,  which  is  the  characteristic  feature 
of  the  age,  must  be  made  the  school  of  humanity. 
Life,  energy  and  power,  like  wisdom,  are  not  to  be 
plucked  from  trees ;  they  come  only  as  responses 
to  an  earnest  will,  as  the  prayer  which  ends  in  work 
as  its  amen. 

And  in  earliest  infancy  this  training  must  begin. 
Spelling,  grammar  and  arithmetic  may  be  learned 
at  ten  or  twenty  years,  or  later.  The  man,  the 
character,  says  Juvenal,  is  made  at  seven  ;  what  he  is 
then,  he  will  always  be-— in  spite  of  a  thousand  teach- 
ers you  may  give  him  after  that  period  has  passed. 


Systcws  of  Education.  99 

Maudsley  says,  the  true  aim  and  character  of 
Education  are  unhappily  not  yet  understood.  Man 
should  understand  himself  and  nature,  of  which  he 
is  a  part ;  and  with  which  himself,  his  thoughts  and 
actions  should  be  in  harmony;  that  through  knowl- 
edge of  and  obedience  to  the  laws  of  nature  he 
may  represent  the  highest  physical,  mental  and 
moral  evolution.  Our  present  Education  must  be 
revolutionized  ;  for  to-day,  riches,  position,  power 
and  the  applause  of  men  are  the  chief  aims,  and 
not  culture,  development  and  character;  and, 
hence,  anxieties,  disappointments  and  jealousies 
break  down  the  soul  in  madness,  which  noth- 
ing can  cure  more  radically  than  a  sound  Educa 
tion. 

John  Draper  maintains.  Education  should  repre- 
sent the  existing  state  of  knowledge  and  not  the 
pretended  wisdom  of  past  ages.  He  treats  with 
deserved  contempt  the  pretended  training  obtained 
through  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek.  The  Ameri- 
can political  system  is  founded  on  the  principle  of 
public  intellectual  culture,  and  the  organization  of 
the  intellect  is  to  be  the  great  work  of  this  conti- 
nent. The  only  method  of  ameliorating  the  con- 
dition of  men  is  by  acting  on  their  intelligence. 
Our  aspirations  have  been  hitherto  physical ;  they 
must  and  are  now  becoming  spiritual  and  intellec- 
tual.    Our  personal  ambitions  must  retire,  that  we 


i(X>  Race  and  Individual  Education. 

may  share  in  the  development  and  accomplishment 
of  a  far  higher  result. 

There  is  not  a  principle  of  Education  but  we 
may  glean  it  from  some  ancient  or  modern  writer ; 
but  Race  Education,  or  Hereditary  Culture,  is  a 
formula  that  embraces  all  the  hitherto  separated 
tendencies,  each  of  which  is  but  part  of  Education. 
It  embraces  the  physical,  mental,  moral  and  indus- 
trial elements ;  it  suggests  the  method,  means  and 
end,  and  sets  before  us  humanity  as  the  highest 
aim ;  it  is  above  all  practical,  and  looks  to  the 
solid  welfare  of  the  individual,  nation  and  race,  and 
indicates  the  necessity  of  a  National  Education,  as 
none  but  the  nation  can  educate  the  individual  for 
the  race  and  nation. 

RACE   AND   INDIVIDUAL   EDUCATION. 

Man,  standing  on  the  border  of  the  brute  world, 
cares  only  for  himself.  He  mounts  the  first  step 
of  civilization  and  lives  for  his  family;  the  second, 
and  he  lives  for  the  State.  He  is  to-day  called 
upon  to  mount  the  third  and  live  for  the  race. 
Or,  is  it  asking  too  much,  after  ages  of  spiritual 
culture  and  political  Education,  that  man  should 
feci  his  unity  with,  and  his  place  in  the  race,  from 
which  separated  he  has  no  more  life  nor  purpose 
than  the  eye,  hand  or  foot  has  apart  from  the 
body? 


Race  and  Individual  Education.  loi 

Is  it  not  unscientific  and  leading  to  mischief,  if 
the  school  treat  man  as  a  complete  and  unitary- 
being  that  has  its  end  outside  of  the  race  ? 

Should  we  not  live,  and,  therefore,  be  brought 
up  for  the  race  ?  Or,  are  we  to  be  brought  up  for 
ourselves,  and  be  told  afterward  that  we  must  live 
for  the  race  ?  Does  not  this  doing  one  thing  and 
saying  another,  sow  in  us  the  seeds  of  hypocrisy 
and  contradiction  ?  Does  not  our  every  act  bless 
or  curse  the  race,  ameliorate  or  deteriorate  it  ? 
Why,  then,  should  the  preservation  and  ameliora- 
tion of  the  race,  which  enters  our  every  act,  not  be 
made  especially  the  aim  of  Education  ? 

If  a  decent  regard  for  the  rights  of  conscience 
keeps  out  of  schools  disputable  points,  what  is 
there  to  hinder  us  from  introducing  into  them  the 
purest  ethics  of  science  ? 

The  training  of  man  for  his  place  in  a  world  of 
law,  order  and  justice,  that  the  race  may  be  pre- 
served and  live,  grow  and  develop  in  harmony  with 
the  conditions  of  being  and  universal  progress  and 
development,  is  the  work  of  Race  Education,  or 
Hereditary  Culture. 

Everything  serves  a  purpose  outside  its  own  ex- 
istence ;  it  is  the  law  of  nature  in  which  everything 
is  means  as  well  as  ends.  Man,  a  conscious  being, 
feels  the  void  of  a  life  that  serves  no  higher  purpose 
and   ends  with  its  own  being.     Race    Education 


I02  Race  and  Individual  Education. 

points  out  to  us  humanity  or  the  whole  as  the  end 
of  the  individual,  who  is  but  part  of  the  whole,  and 
is  only  possible  in  and  through  it. 

The  individual  who,  in  passion  or  ignorance, 
silences  this  inner  voice  of  nature,  which  pushes 
man  to  be  means  as  well  as  end  in  a  world  of  mu- 
tuality, will  soon  perish  in  his  isolation. 

Every  great  reformer  of  Education  was  a  great 
lover  of  the  race.  So  was  every  extraordinary 
teacher.  The  worst  method  in  the  hands  of  a 
teacher  full  of  love  to  his  race,  is  preferable  to  the 
best  method  in  the  hands  of  a  teacher  whose  soul 
is  dead. 

The  highest  scientific  induction  places  the  spirit 
of  saving,  elevating  and  preserving  the  race,  which 
has  led  all  the  great  reformers  of  Education  into  the 
discovery  of  improved  methods,  and  has  strength- 
ened and  upheld  their  hands  in  the  performance  of 
their  arduous  work,  as  a  constructive  principle,  at 
the  very  head  and  front  of  Education,  and  builds 
upon  it  a  system  in  keeping  with  the  great  end  to 
be  attained. 

Of  course,  routine  pays  no  attention  to  the  aim 
or  principle  of  the  teacher,  whom  it  considers  a 
tool  working  well  with  the  method,  books  and 
charts  furnished  by  the  man  of  genius  who  has  a 
soul  for  him. 

We  deny  tba  proposition.     Man  is  not  made  of 


Race  and  Individual  Education.  103 

wood  or  leather,  and  cannot  be  manufactured  ma- 
chine-like. A  man  must  have  a  higher  life  in  his 
soul,  or  he  cannot  kindle  it  in  others.  In  ev- 
ery department  even  this  is  the  mischief,  that 
forms  and  methods  so  useful  supersede  the  life 
and  spirit  which  generated  them ;  and,  natural 
enough,  lose  their  efficiency  with  the  spirit  that 
departed. 

The  highest  generalization  alone  can  teach  us 
the  proper  means  and  methods,  and  put  into  them 
life  and  efficiency. 

Civilization  will  not  long  tolerate  the  barbarism  of 
our  present  poor  and  mad-houses  or  killing  jails. 
The  care  of  our  defectives  is  becoming  very  expen- 
sive ;  the  lessening  of  public  burdens,  therefore,  by 
lessening  public  miseries,  is  the  rightful  domain  of 
public  Education,  the  sphere  of  which  is  the  pub- 
lic weal  and  not  fashionable  accomplishments,  lead- 
ing to  fashionable  vices  and  corruption,  and  end- 
ing in  human  degeneracy — the  very  thing  public. 
Education  is  to  prevent. 

If  we  are  to  succeed  in  stopping  race  dete- 
rioration or  lessening  defectiveness,  we  must  aim 
directly  at  it  and  work  hard  for  it  ;  sailing  at 
large  on  the  wide  ocean  of  Education  will  not 
do  it. 

Theorists  may  dream  ;  still  the  indications  are  the 
world  is  not  to  be  improved  by  being  turned  into 


104  Race  and  Individual  Education. 

a  vast  monster  kitchen,  but  by  being  made  into  a 
grand  school  house,  where  the  present  generation 
will  train  the  next  one,  that  every  man  may  live  in 
harmony  with  the  laws  of  his  own  individual  being, 
of  society  and  of  the  entire  universe  ;  that  all  dis- 
cord may  disappear  ;  vice,  misery  and  crime  may 
only  live  in  name  as  sad  memories  of  the  past,  and 
men  may  no  more  imbrue  their  hands  in  each  oth- 
er's blood,  nor  may  be  driven  annually  by  the  half  a 
million  to  madness  or  unnatural  self-destruction. 
The  common  consciousness  of  the  nation  and  the 
world  at  large  is,  that  its  future  salvation  is  Educa- 
tion. Of  course,  we  ascribe  such  potency,  no  more 
than  Herbert  Spencer  does,  to  mere  ciphering,  or 
spelling,  or  geography,  or  algebra. 

Make  the  individual  the  end  of  Education,  and 
his  partial  culture  will  be  taken  for  his  full  develop- 
ment ;  make  individual  development  the  means  and 
the  race  the  end — as  nothing  else  is — heredity  be- 
comes then  our  great  ally  and  human  degeneracy 
our  great  adversary,  of  which  the  one  can  only  be 
secured  by  early  infant  training  and  discipline 
throughout  the  whole  of  Education,  and  the  other 
can  only  be  combated  through  industrial  train- 
ing, the  only  sure  preventive  of  pauperism,  the 
main  source  of  misery  which  opens  the  flood  gates 
of  human  degeneracy. 


Race  Education  Further  Expou7ided.        105 

RACE  EDUCATION  FURTHER  EXPOUNDED. 

Physical,  intellectual,  moral,  scientific  and  indus- 
trial Education  have  each  attracted  more  or  less 
attention.  We  deal  with  Education  as  a  social 
science  and  with  the  chief  end  of  Education. 
Men  of  mere  routine  care  not  about  ends,  but  the 
sight  of  the  end  of  the  journey  keeps  us  on  the 
right  track.  The  end  once  clearly  perceived,  and 
the  means  and  method  for  obtaining  it  are  clear. 
The  putting  of  the  problem  right  is  half  the  sola-  • 
tion  ;  and,  hence,  our  solicitude  for  ascertaining 
the  great  end  of  Education  and  for  finding  the 
formula,  which  embraces  the  whole  of  Education. 

Race  Education  implies  that  Education  has  its 
tangible  foundation  in  the  physical  nature  of,  and 
its  moral  purpose  in  devotion  to,  the  race.  And 
we  must  lay  stress  upon  the  moral  element,  which 
is  crowded  out  of  Education  by  the  multiplicity  of 
modern  studies. 

Virtue,  says  Locke,  is  to  be  aimed  at  in  Educa- 
tion, and  not  forward  pertness  or  any  little  arts  of 
shifting.  The  teacher  should  know  that  Latin  and 
language  are  the  least  part  of  Education,  and  that 
virtue  and  a  well-tempered  soul  are  to  be  preferred 
to  any  sort  of  learning. 

Lord   Kames  says :   "  Our  teachers  direct   their 
instruction  to  the  head  with  very  little  attention 
5* 


lo6        Race  Educaticm  FurtJier  Expounded. 

to  the  heart.  And  yet,  surely,  a  man  is  intended 
to  be  more  an  active  than  a  contemplative  being ; 
and  right  action  is  infinitely  more  important  than 
rare  scholarship."  Bacon  and  Milton,  like  all  great 
leaders  of  the  race,  speak  in  the  same  strain. 

But  this  right  disposition  can  only  be  formed  in 
the  mind  while  it  is  in  its  very  making,  by  our 
stamping  devotion  to  mankind  upon  every  exercise 
of  the  school,  be  it  gymnastics,  music  or  industry, 
and  that  we  can  only  effect  by  engaging  in  every 
exercise  for  the  purpose  of  enlarging  the  capacities, 
efficiency  and  happiness  of  the  race. 

The  whole  of  Education  must  be  a  consecration 
of  the  individual  to  the  race,  in  which  it  is  to  be 
merged,  and  life  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave  has 
to  be  a  sacrifice  of  the  present  to  the  future,  and 
of  the  individual  to  the  race.  Still,  this  sacrifice  is 
only  one  in  appearance,  as  we  can  do  nothing  for 
the  race,  which  does  not  further  our  own  individual 
growth  and  true  happiness. 

Race  Education,  or  Hereditary  Culture,  renders 
the  adaptation  of  the  Education  of  every  individual 
to  his  own  peculiar  organization  only  the  more  im- 
perative, as  no  permanent  improvement  is  possible 
which  is  not  based  on  physiological  conformation ; 
and,  hence,  the  development  of  the  race  and  the 
individual  is  best  secured  when  the  one  is  treated 
as  the  end,  and  the  other  as  the  means. 


Race  Education  Further  Expounded.        107 

The  gala  or  state  morality,  or  moral  mask  and 
prudery,  of  a  lesson  or  two  a  week  in  a  moral  text 
book,  would  not  be  worth  pleading  for.  The  whole 
of  Education  and  every  act  of  it  must  be  perme- 
ated by  a  spiritual  element,  which  is  at  the  same 
time  the  last  and  most  sober  word  of  science,  with- 
out cant  or  weakness,  and  in  which  science  and 
religion  are  wedded  to  each  other — and  that  word 
is  Race  Education. 

In  the  multiplicity  of  means  and  methods  for 
doing  this,  that  and  something  else  in  the  mechani- 
cal routine  of  our  crowded  school  houses,  the  phys- 
ical basis,  and  the  moral  purpose  of  all  true  Edu- 
cation can  only  be  kept  in  view  by  the  magic  word 
of  Rate  Education. 

A  teacher  cannot  develop  hereditary  culture  or 
build  up  a  desirable  national  character,  if  he  has 
not  risen  even  to  the  bare  conception  of  Race  Edu- 
cation. He,  who  aims  may  hit ;  he,  who  does  not 
even  aim  is  sure  to  miss. 

Only  national  infant  schools  moulding  the  char- 
acter and  organization  of  a  people  by  habit  and 
training,  and  nothing  else  can  build  up  a  desirable 
hereditary  national  character.  Every  peculiarity 
of  the  skin,  muscles,  bones  and  nerves  is  hereditary, 
and  so  is  that  of  the  brain,  especially  when  the  whole 
of  the  nation  is  trained  and  educated  in  the  same 
direction,  and  the  surroundings  are  made  subservi- 


io8        Race  Educatum  Further  Expounded. 

ent  to  the  same  common  end.  It  is  almost  beyond 
the  power  of  the  individual  to  dispose  the  forces 
of  nature  and  of  society  in  a  manner  as  will  develop 
his  character  in  the  right  direction.  This  requires 
the  almost  infinite  means  and  power  only  at  the 
disposal  of  a  nation,  which,  to  say  the  least,  largely 
shares  in  our  individual  responsibility,  which  it  con- 
trols mightily  in  its  right  or  wrong  development. 
And,  hence,  the  duty  of  our  public  Education  to 
use  all  the  powers  at  the  command  of  the  state  for 
the  elevation  of  the  character  and  efficiency  of  all. 

Race  Education,  or  Progressive  Hereditary  Cult- 
ure, has  a  double  function  to  perform — the  correc- 
tion of  physical,  mental  and  moral  morbid  tenden- 
cies and  the  developing  and  strengthening  of  the 
normal  activities  of  man  in  the  most  susceptible 
and  pliable  period  of  infancy  and  youth. 

Enlightened  thinkers  insist  that  a  criminal  should 
not  be  treated  as  a  blank,  but  as  a  collection  of 
hereditary  tendencies ;  and,  certainly,  the  school 
and  the  teacher  should  not  be  behind  the  prison 
and  its  keepers  in  scientific  method  and  treatment. 
Let  the  school  correct  some  of  our  hereditary  ten- 
dencies and  cultivate  others,  and  there  will  soon 
be  no  call  for  prisons  and  the  like  institutions. 
Better  the  teacher  study  the  hereditary  tendencies 
of  the  child  than  that  the  same  study  be  forced 
upon  us  in  the  end  for  the  purpose  of  correcting 
pauperism,  insanity  and  crime. 


Race  Education  Further  Expomided,        109 

The  constitutional  deterioration  of  the  masses 
induced  by  want,  misery  and  neglect,  begins  its 
destructive  work  in  the  mind  with  the  highest 
functions,  the  moral  sensibilities,  or  the  conscience, 
spreading  to  the  will,  the  seat  of  the  character  or 
energy,  until  it  reaches  at  last  the  power  of  thought ; 
and,  hence,  the  increase  of  crime,  pauperism  and 
insanity. 

The  physical  powers  may  seem  unabated,  but 
the  decay  is  apparent  in  the  higher  functions  and 
the  moral  sensibilities  are  defective,  rendering  men 
hardly  accountable.  With  the  progress  of  deteri- 
oration the  function  of  the  will  is  attacked,  and  the 
man  is  no  more  to  be  blamed  for  his  lethargy,  than 
the  idiot  for  his  obtuseness. 

The  corruption  of  our  time  and  its  general  con- 
fusion, as  our  lack  of  organizing  capacity,  are  all 
symptoms  of  deterioration  not  likely  to  be  met  by 
Latin  grammar. 

We  over-estimate  in  our  scheme  of  Education 
the  ideas  of  other  men  which,  coming  to  us  without 
thought  or  observation,  are  but  half  understood 
words,  adding  nothing  to  our  real  strength.  Knowl- 
edge, like  wealth,  looks  tempting;  but  only  when 
obtained  by  long  and  hard  labor  do  they  develop 
the  power  of  employing  them  wisely.  Our  thirst 
for  knowledge  is  as  morbid  as  our  greed  for  gain. 
Wealth  and  knowledge  are  both  but  means  of 
which  humanity  is   the  end  ;   knowledge,  however, 


1 10        Race  Education  Further  Expounded. 

instead  of  developing  humanity  by  being  assimilated 
into  character  or  incorporated  into  institutions,  is 
left  by  us  unapplied.  We  hurry  from  idea  to  idea, 
like  images  in  a  phantasmagoria ;  one  gives  way  to 
the  other ;  all  solves  itself  into  relativity ;  and, 
hence,  the  apathy  and  anarchy  of  the  age  in  which 
truth  and  goodness  have  ceased  to  serve  as  stand- 
ards of  life  and  action. 

Ideas  are  so  far  ahead  of  the  actual  condition  of 
mankind  that  the  application  of  the  one  to  the 
other  is  almost  out  of  question  ;  the  one  advancing 
at  high  speed,  the  other  lagging  lazily  behind  at  a 
great  distance,  until  hardly  anything  but  violent 
revolution  can  bridge  over  the  chasm  between  the 
actual  and  the  ideal ;  a  contrast  too  painful  long  to 
be  borne  and  which  must  have  its  adjustment. 

Race  Education  strives  for  a  strong,  healthy  and 
normal  hum.anity;  scholastic  Education  sends  its 
literary  firework  up  into  the  clouds,  unconcerned 
about  the  benighted  masses  of  mankind  below. 

Religious  men  feel  the  defect  of  the  position  of 
men,  who  cultivate  science  and  literature  uncon- 
cerned about  man.  We  have  applied  science  to 
almost  everything  and  have  made  it  pay,  save  to 
humanity  itself,  which  has  become  almost  worthless. 
It  was  otherwise  with  the  Greeks.  True,  they  knew 
but  little  of  machinery,  but  their  men  were  God- 
like.    The  realism  of  science  may  become  as  dan- 


Race  Education  and  Division  of  Labor.       1 1 1 

geroLis  to  humanity,  and  even  more  so,  than  the 
dogmatism  of  past  ages,  which  it  replaces  by  the 
worship  of  wealth  it  develops. 

Spain,  doting  upon  the  gold  mines  of  the  New 
World,  neglected  the  richer  treasures  of  her  own 
soil  and  got  poor.  We  get  rich  by  trade  and  com- 
merce, and  neglect  the  cultivation  of  humanity, 
more  rich  in  treasures  than  even  the  bosom  of 
mother  earth  under  our  feet.  Poor  and  paltry, 
indeed,  are  our  richest  possessions  compared  with 
the  material  wealth  of  the  future,  and  this  is  but 
as  the  dust  of  the  balance  to  the  power  and  the  re- 
sources of  the  mind,  which  creates  it  all. 

Science  in  its  most  perfect  form  leads  to  the 
highest  evolution  of  humanity,  and  is  more  truly 
religious  than  anything  else,  because  it  is  most 
humane. 

We  believe  with  the  great  positivist,  that  the 
re-organization  of  Education  must  precede  the  re- 
organization of  society ;  as  all  legislation  is  but  a 
dead  letter  as  long  as  public  opinion  is  unimproved. 

RACE   EDUCATION  AND   DIVISION   OF   LABOR. 

Race  Education  leads  to  a  proper  division  of 
labor,  the  chief  part  of  a  proper  organization  of 
society. 

For  National  Iiifant  schools,  a  chief  feature  in 
Race  Education,  train  young  women  for  their  fu- 


112  Woman's   Work. 

ture  work  and  duties  as  mothers  and  educators  of 
the  race.  The  children  are  kept  first  in  the  infant, 
next  in  the  elementary,  and,  at  last,  in  industrial 
schools  ;  and  grown  men  alone  are  to  work  in  facto- 
ries. Here,  then,  is  a  most  simple  and  natural  divi- 
sion of  labor  initiated,  resting  upon  the  difference  of 
sex  and  age,  decidedly  restricting  the  present  mur- 
derous competition  of  labor.  All  the  vast  interests 
and  the  very  existence  of  humanity  call  impera- 
tively for  this  step  in  the  re-organization  of  society, 
a  step  supported  by  public  opinion  and  meeting 
with  but  little  resistance,  everybody  feeling  the 
need  and  naturalness  of  this  measure. 

We  shall  not  lose  by  this  division  of  labor,  for 
we  produce  values  in  proportion  to  our  efficiency  ; 
and,  if  we  are  better  educated,  the  production 
of  material  values  will  be  enhanced,  besides  that 
the  more  perfect  and  normal  man  is  the  chiefest 
wealth  of  the  state. 

woman's  work. 

Woman  holds  her  commission  from  God  ;  her 
natural  sphere  is  the  nursery  and  the  Infant  Train- 
ing school,  where  she  continues  her  work  of  gesta- 
tion, which  is  not  completed  until  she  has  formed 
the  character  of  her  offspring. 

The  factory  is  not  woman's  place,  as  Gladstone 
says :  "  He  who  will  free  woman  from  labor  in  the 


Woman's  Work.  113 

factory  will  be  a  benefactor  of  the  family  ;"  still,  as 
we  cannot  afford  to  lose  the  labor  of  half  the  race, 
woman  must  work  for  the  race  by  working  upon 
the  race,  fashioning  and  developing  its  character; 
and  that  she  only  can  do  when  Kindergartens  cover 
the  land  in  which  she  is  prepared  for  her  work. 

Why  were  the  Rorrians  during  the  better  ages  of 
the  republic  the  model  citizens  of  the  world  ?  Be- 
cause they  had  model  mothers  for  their  educators. 
Fill  the  land  with  Kindergartens,  training  women 
for  their  future  duties  as  mothers  ;  and,  as  we  shall 
have  then  more  than  Roman  mothers,  we  shall  also 
have  citizens  who  are  more  than  Romans. 

Woman  in  the  barbarous  state  of  society  is  the 
slave ;  in  the  semi-barbarous  she  is  the  toy  and  the 
tyrant,  and  in  the  perfect  state  of  society  she  is  the 
educator. 

When  women  will  be  educators  of  the  race  they 
will  be  its  saviors  ;  to-day,  show,  pride  and  vanity 
make  them  its  destroyers,  leading  on  men  by  their 
extravagance  to  corruption  in  private  as  well  as 
public  business,  until  confidence  in  men  and  insti- 
tutions is  to-day  fairly  gone,  and  the  downfall  of 
the  nation  almost  inevitable. 

To  let  a  woman  speak  about  her  own  sex,  we 
will  quote  the  well-known  and  competent  Emilie 
Davies,  who  said  before  the  National  Association 
for  the    Improvement  of  Social   Science :   "  Is  it 


114  Woman's  Work. 

not  true  that  to  amuse  themselves  and  other  peo- 
ple is  the  great  object  in  the  life  of  women  ;  and 
is  it  possible  that  their  sedulous  devotion  to  this 
one  object  can  fail  to  react  upon  the  men  with 
whom  they  associate  ?  Who  gives  the  tone  to 
what  we  may  call  lax  and  luxurious  homes  ?  Who 
teaches  the  boys  that  hard  work  is  foolish  self-tor- 
ture, that  an  easy  life  is  more  to  be  desired  than 
the  fine  gold  of  intellectual  attainment  ?  Not  their 
fathers.  What  is  the  ideal  presented  to  young  girls  ? 
Is  it  anything  higher  than  to  be  amiable,  inoffen- 
sive, always  ready  to  give  pleasure  and  to  be 
pleased  ?  Could  anything  be  more  stupefying 
than  such  a  conception  of  the  purposes  of  exist- 
ence ?  As  long  as  women  live  only  for  trifles,  men 
will  only  live  for  making  money." 

Only  when  women  will  be  brought  up  to  be  the 
educators  of  the  race  will  men  live  for  great  pur- 
poses, and  every  family  will  be  a  centre  from  which 
saving  influences  will  go  forth  to  bless  the  race. 

Women  have  infinitely  more  tact  for  developing 
character  than  men,  though  they  may  have  less  fit- 
ness for  teaching  Aristotle's  metaphysics,  which, 
however,  are  best  not  taught  at  all. 

Pessimists  may  stamp  every  thought  of  an  up- 
ward tendency  as  an  idle  dream,  but  we  cannot  be- 
lieve men,  women,  the  government  and  our  whole 
civilization  hopelessly  corrupt. 


The  School  and  the  Home.  115 

Race  Education,  or  Hereditary  Culture,  aiming 
at  the  prevention  of  race  deterioration,  insists  upon 
fitting  woman  for  her  domestic  duties,  upon  the 
proper  performance  of  which  many  lives  depend. 
She  has  under  her  supervision  the  home,  the  food, 
the  clothing,  the  exercise,  the  rest,  sleep  and  the 
entire  habits  of  the  family.  She  nurses  them  in 
sickness,  and  by  her  economy  or  lavishness  brings 
comfort  competency,  and  general  improvement, 
or  poverty,  with  all  its  want,  misery  and  deteri- 
oration. 

For  the  children,  the  home  and  the  school  are 
the  place,  and  not  the  factory. 

For  men  and  their  powers  the  factory  and  the 
workshops  of  art,  science  and  industry  furnish  op- 
portunities, according  to  their  aptitudes. 

Reactionists  may  force  upon  the  world  revolu- 
tion ;  thinkers  work  for  normal  development ;  and 
the  soul  must  be  dead  that  does  not  feel  that  there 
is  a  divinity  in  reason  that  shapes  the  progress  of 
the  race. 

THE  SCHOOL  AND  THE  HOME. 

Race  Education  interests  itself  in  the  homes  of 
the  people,  without  the  co-operation  of  which  its 
own  success  is  utterly  impossible. 

The  school  can  at  best  do  but  half  its  work  with 

children  housed  like  swine. 


Il6  The  School  and  tJie  Home. 

The  cry  of  the  educators  of  the  land  must,  there- 
fore, be  :  "  Homes  for  the  people  and  schools  for 
the  children." 

Race  Education,  in  which  training  predominates, 
exercises  more  the  will,  the  central  faculty  of  the 
mind ;  and  by  moulding  the  heart  and  character  of 
man  leads  through  correct  feeling  to  sound  think- 
ing. 

Race  Education  antagonizes  in  the  pliant  state 
of  the  young  organism  all  vicious  hereditary  ten- 
dencies, physical  or  otherwise,  and  corrects  the  pas- 
sions which  unbalance  the  mind. 

Race  Education  improves  the  race  by  fostering 
individual  skill  and  aptitudes,  which  increase  the 
effectiveness  of  the  race  as  well  as  of  the  individual. 

Race  Education  does  not  consider  man  as  a  sep- 
arate being,  divorced  from  the  past,  present  and 
future  of  the  race.  Man  exists  only  in,  through 
and  for  the  race,  and  can  only  be  understood  and 
prepared  for  his  destiny  in  harmony  with  the  race. 

Race  Education,  aiming  at  the  improvement  of 
the  race,  seeks  to  elevate  the  masses ;  while  scho- 
lastic Education,  aiming  at  literary  excellency,  the 
prerogative  of  but  few,  sacrifices  to  this  small  mi- 
nority the  many. 

Education,  fitting  man  for  all  his  functions  in 
society,  must  take  council  with  social  science.  The 
teachers  of  Greece  and  Rome  were  social  and  moral 


The  Development  of  Education.  117 

philosophers,  hence  their  great  influence  upon  their 
disciples  and  upon  the  lives  of  the  men  of  their 
times. 

The  characteristic  morbid  tendencies  of  the 
minds  and  morals  of  individuals  and  communi- 
ties, the  vices  and  miseries  peculiar  to  the  age, 
their  spread,  cure  and  prevention  deeply  interest 
the  educator. 

THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF   EDUCATION. 

The  Education  of  modern  Europe  began  with 
the  catechism,  or  belief,  progressed  to  the  study  of 
the  languages  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  is  thought 
to  have  reached  its  goal  in  our  day  in  aiming  at 
knowledge,  which,  we  maintain,  must  give  way  to 
Race  Education.  Belief,  language,  knowledge  and 
humanity  form  the  complete  cycle  or  evolution  of 
Education.  We  begin  with  instinctive  hope  and 
assurance,  the  prophecy  of  future  realization  ;  and, 
hence,  belief,  or  the  catechism.  As  language  is  the 
first  step  and  mark  of  growing  intelligence  in  the 
child,  so  it  is  with  the  race.  Language,  the  instru- 
ment of  thought,  must  be  brought  to  some  degree 
of  perfection  before  men  can  think  with  precision 
and  advance  to  scientific  knowledge.  Language, 
having  the  full  impress  of  reason,  is  the  best  means 
for  developing  the  mind  ;  and,  being  the  store- 
house of  the  intellectual  acquisitions  of  the  race, 


1 1 8  Tlie  Dcvelopme7it  of  Education. 

acquaints  us  with  the  labors  of  those  who  preceded 
us  before  we  advance  to  original  research.  But 
even  knowledge  is  not  the  last  word,  for  ideas  must 
become  things,  leading  to  the  improvement  of  man 
and  the  elevation  of  the  race. 

We  are  far  from  undervaluing  knowledge  ;  still 
nothing  less  than  the  preservation  and  improve- 
ment of  the  race  can  be  the  aim  of  Education. 

We  object  to  the  display  made  of  a  showy  sort 
of  learning  in  our  higher  institutions,  while  the 
people  are  refused  in  their  elementary  schools  the 
solid  instruction  of  science  that  would  assist  them 
in  the  use  of  the  tools  they  are  to  handle  in  their 
future  practical  pursuits  in  life. 

Our  histories,  with  their  royal  pedigrees,  political 
intrigues  and  battles,  must  give  way  to  the  study 
of  the  rise  and  development  of  cities  and  states ; 
and  physics,  chemistry,  physiology,  botany  and 
the  other  sciences  must  be  taught  in  the  com- 
mon school  chiefly  in  their  applications  to  life  and 
industry.  Our  common  schools  better  teach  a  little 
less  geography  and  a  little  more  of  Youmans'  Physi- 
ology and  Hygiene,  a  little  less  grammar  and  a  little 
more  of  Youmans'  Household  Science.  The  sub- 
ject matter  of  our  Education  is  not  life,  but  litera- 
ture, the  heroes  of  which  we  worship,  while  we 
neglect  the  only  true  hero  of  the  world — toiling 
humanity. 


Our  Civilization  and  Deterioration.         119 

Race  Education,  or  Hereditary  Culture,  implies 
progress,  a  power  by  which  we  are  striving  for  an 
excellency  not  yet  attained,  and  which  assists  us 
more  in  our  endeavor  to  work  up  to  the  high  des- 
tiny of  man  than  any  other  idea  or  principle. 

Race  Education,  improving  the  masses,  lifts  all 
to  a  higher  plane  of  common  sense,  where  all  see 
at  a  glance  what  the  interminable  discussions  of 
former  ages  could  not  make  clear  even  to  the  wise 
surrounded  by  general  darkness. 

OUR  CIVILIZATION  AND   DETERIORATION. 

The  whole  of  our  civilization  is  a  series  of  life- 
deteriorating  processes.  The  producing  classes  de- 
generate in  mines  and  factories  ;  adulterations  and 
artificial  wants  do  their  work  on  the  consumer ; 
luxury  deteriorates  the  one,  and  want  and  misery 
degenerate  the  other.  The  records  of  the  nobles  of 
Venice,  of  the  old  aristocracy  of  France  and  En- 
gland, prove  the  almost  general  disappearance  of 
families  living  in  great  affluence  after  a  few  cen- 
turies ;  while  our  factory  and  poor  laborers  in  great 
cities,  left  to  themselves,  die  out  in  three  to  four 
generations. 

There  is  not  a  relation  in  life  but  tends  toward 
race  deterioration  ;  and,  like  past  nations  and  civ- 
ilizations, we  dig  our  own  grave  if  we  fail  to  oppose 
to  this  degenerating  tendency  an  Education,  which 


I20         Our  Civilization  and  Deterioration, 

is  a  persistent  system  of  race  amelioration,  inspired 
by  the  spirit  of  altruism,  the  saving  genius  of  the 
race,  and  the  only  possible  correction  of  an  age 
selfish  to  the  core. 

Race  Education  cultivates  in  the  teacher,  who 
brings  up  the  child  for  the  race,  devotion  to  hu- 
manity, which  from  him  spreads  and  imbues  all. 
The  system  in  vogue  appeals  to  the  scholar's  pride 
— a  passion  that  stirred  up  the  first  rebellion  in 
heaven  ;  a  passion  fierce  and  anti-social  underlying 
one-half  of  all  mischief  and  oppression  in  the  world. 

Are  men  never  to  be  brought  up  to  work  for  one 
another  ?  Is  the  kingdom  of  heaven  never  to  be- 
come a  fact  and  a  truth  ?  Are  justice,  peace  and 
good -will  among  men  but  a  dream  and  not  a 
prophecy  as  well  ? 

Individual  Education  means  selfishness,  which, 
winding  its  way  from  the  school  room  to  the  cabi- 
net, creeps  down  thence  to  the  lowest  shop,  and 
involves  the  nation  in  ruin. 

Not  without  mighty  reasons,  and  the  testimony 
of  the  universal  facts  of  history  as  well  as  the  judg- 
ment of  the  best  of  mankind,  has  Rousseau  de- 
nounced civilization  as  the  mother  of  the  chiefest 
of  our  woes,  which  denunciation  falls  still  justly 
upon  the  culture  of  to-day,  that  often  is  but  an- 
other name  for  refined  selfishness,  considering  itself 
the  highest  end  instead  of  serving  and  improving 


Education  and  Individualism.  121 

the  race.  Within  reasonable  limits  this  terrible  in- 
dictment of  all  past  civilization  is  more  than  a  mere 
morbid  fancy  of  the  over-sensitive  •  Jean  Jacques, 
The  clear-sighted  Lessing,  than  whom  none  loved 
truth  more  ardently,  moaned  over  the  displacement 
of  the  practical  wisdom  of  Socrates  by  the  dreams 
of  Plato  and  the  syllogisms  of  Aristotle — for  both 
these  men  w^ere  but  toying,  the  one  with  philos- 
ophy and  the  other  with  science — while  none  of 
them  cared  for  humanity,  at  least  not  in  the  great 
style  of  the  master,  who  discarded  the  high-sound- 
ing philosophy  of  the  schools  and  set  about  teach- 
ing men  how  to  live. 

Other  sages  spoke  words  of  love,  equally  drowned 
by  the  jargon  of  the  schools,  which  ever  preferred 
what  pedants  call  scholarly  accomplishments  to 
humanity,  which  they  left  to  perish. 

Words  cost  less  than  deeds,  and  learning  is 
cheaper  than  goodness  ;  and,  hence,  scholarship  is 
more  popular  than  humanity. 

This  evil,  therefore,  is  not  of  yesterday,  nor  is 
its  denunciation  new  ;  but,  as  the  lesson  is  not 
heeded,  men  must  not  complain  if  it  is  dinned  in 
their  ear  over  and  again. 

EDUCATION   AND   INDIVIDUALISM. 

Neither  the  promotion  of  the  individual  nor  the 

establishment  of  any  truth  or  principle,  but  solely 
6 


122  Education  and  Individualism. 

the  preservation  and  improvement  of  the  race  are 
the  aim  of  the  new  Education. 

Or  do  we  aim  too  high,  when  we  are  asking  for 
the  masses  of  the  people  a  sound  body  and  a  well- 
balanced  mind,  the  first  requisite  of  Race  Educa- 
tion ? 

Nothing  but  the  bringing  up  of  every  child  for 
the  race  can  bring  those  better  times,  the  belief  of 
which  is  implanted  in  every  human  breast. 

Race  Education,  with  heredity,  its  foundation 
principle,  impresses  parents  and  all  with  the  sense 
of  the  responsibility  arising  from  the  knowledge 
that  by  any  imprudence,  which  deteriorates  the 
race,  we  may  give  the  world  maniacs,  criminals^ 
paupers  and  idiots,  filling  individuals  and  com- 
munities with  sadness  and  decay,  and  even  lead  to 
a  degeneracy  which  may  seal  the  doom  of  our 
country. 

Individual  happiness  as  the  aim  of  Education, 
and,  therefore,  of  life,  is  mean  on  the  very  face  of 
it  ;  and  yet  the  aim  of  individual  perfection  leads 
invariably  to  the  same  selfish  end  and  defeats  its 
own  better  purpose. 

Considering  the  culture  of  the  select  few  of  our 
own  class  as  the  sole  aim  of  humanity,  we  reduce 
mankind  to  beasts  of  burden  in  order  to  subserve 
our  own  selfish  purposes,  call  it  culture  or  what 
you  may,  and  thus  we  find  th.it  neither  the  divin« 


Education  and  Individualism.  123 

musings  of  Plato  nor  the  science  of  Aristotle  dis- 
covered to  the  one  or  the  other  the  inhumanity  of 
slavery,  which  they  deemed  the  necessary  condi- 
tion of  their  own  culture. 

Race  Education,  setting  up  the  claims  of  the  race 
above  those  of  the  individual,  makes  universal  be- 
nevolence, the  sum  total  of  all  morality,  the  founda- 
tion of  our  Education  and  of  our  conduct  in  life. 

In  our  endeavor  to  be  unsectarian  we  become 
inhuman  to  piracy.  But  humanity  will  not  always 
be  cheated  out  of  the  great  principles  springing 
from  the  eternal  relations  of  the  individual  to 
the  whole  of  humanity  and  the  Cosmos,  advanced 
by  every  founder  of  religion  and  adhered  to  by  a 
sound  philosophy.  Every  man  who  sacrifices  the  in- 
terests of  humanity  to  his  own  narrow  advantage,  or 
who  is  proud,  oppressive  and  inhuman,  has  not  risen 
to  the  high  plane  of  humanity,  and  is  a  brute.  Ed- 
ucation must  be  organized  on  the  highest  principles 
of  humanity,  or  society  will  break  up  into  frag- 
ments. A  half  a  million  of  men  have  fallen  as  if 
it  was  yesterday,  before  the  violated  majesty  of  the 
higher  law,  and  if  it  cannot  be  done  otherwise,  mil- 
lions more  will  fall — but  the  higher  law  of  the  sub- 
ordination of  the  individual  to  society  will  be  vin- 
dicated. Men  sneer  at  patriotism,  honesty  and 
honor,  and  confess  money  their  deity.  Wealth 
takes  off  the  ugly  looks  of  vice,  and   poverty  de- 


124  Race  Education  and  Hygicfie. 

prives  virtue  of  its  charm.  Ostentation  makes 
riches  a  necessity  at  any  price,  and  all  at  war  with 
one  another  chase  for  gold.  A  nation  may  live  for 
ages  under  traditional  slavery,  but  a  state,  in  which 
all  deliberately  violate  the  known  laws  of  nature, 
cannot  long  continue  to  exist ;  and  that  this  is  our 
condition  is  the  open  secret  of  the  nation  to  be 
read  on  every  countenance.  And  are  we  to  be  told 
by  pedants  that  this  condition  of  affairs  matters 
nothing  to  the  school  ? — perish  the  state,  literary 
culture  is  the  thing  ! 

Since,  then,  nothing  but  subordination  to  the 
higher  law,  or  the  subordination  of  the  individual 
to  humanity,  and  general  regard  to  the  good  of 
mankind  can  preserve  a  state  or  government,  Edu- 
cators must  rear  their  whole  structure  upon  this 
foundation,  and,  hence,  the  necessity  of  Race  Edu- 
cation, or  Hereditary  Culture,  which  subordinates 
in  every  particular  the  individual  to  the  race. 

Under  the  system  of  Race  Education  self-culture 
is  not  a  debt  we  owe  merely  to  ourselves,  and 
which  we  may  slight — if  we  so  please — it  becomes 
rather  a  duty  we  owe  to  others,  and  which  to  neg- 
lect is  a  crime  against  the  race. 

RACE   EDUCATION   AND    HYGIENE. 

Race  Education  does  not  trust  to  the  power  of 
mere  words ;  it  looks  to  material  conditions,  from 


Race  Education  and  Hygiene.  125 

which  ever  ideas  and  principles  spring,  as  effects 
do  from  their  causes ;  for  folly  or  wisdom,  and 
vice  or  virtue,  are  but  the  inner  aspect  of  the  outer 
condition  of  man ;  and  air,  bread,  clothing  and  shel- 
ter are  full  of  moral  significance. 

Do  we  expect  to  pluck  figs  from  thistles?  Why, 
then,  should  we  look  for  sound  principles  in  an  un- 
sound body  ?  We  treat  the  mind  and  take  no  ac- 
count of  the  body — the  common  vice  of  the  quack, 
who  treats  the  symptoms  and  leaves  the  deeper 
seat  of  the  disease  untouched. 

Race  Education  studies  its  subjects  in  their 
homes  and  in  connection  with  their  hereditary 
family  relations. 

Plants,  to  be  understood,  must  be  seen  in  the 
soil  in  which  they  grow ;  and  children  can  only  be 
understood  in  the  home  in  which  they  are  rooted 
with  their  vices  and  their  virtues. 

The  scholastic  system  injures  body  and  soul  by 
the  cramming  process ;  the  aesthetic  system  culti- 
vates unduly  the  imagination  and  the  passions ; 
the  moral  system,  relying  upon  precepts,  neglects 
the  material  conditions  of  what  it  aims  at ;  the 
practical  system  makes  time-serving  men,  and  even 
the  harmonious  development  of  the  faculties  of  the 
individual  is  defective  in  principle,  as  man  must  be 
brought  up  chiefly  in  harmony  with  the  race  and 
the  future  of  humanity 


126  Race  Education  and  Hygiene. 

Race  Education  lays  its  foundation  in  the  body, 
watching  the  physiological  formation,  in  which  are 
the  beginnings  of  the  higher  development. 

Emotion,  will  and  perception  originate  in  sensa- 
tions, and  these  depend  upon  the  state  of  nutri- 
tion;  and  we  might  just  as  well  try  to  transplant 
the  flora  of  the  tropics  to  the  rigid  zone  as  try  to 
inculcate  noble  conceptions  into  children,  whose 
nerves,  suffering  from  want  of  proper  nutrition,  give 
rise  to  vicious  sensations. 

The  school  often  debilitates  children  by  mental 
overstrain,  physical  inactivity,  too  long  hours  of 
study,  want  of  pure  air  and  ozone,  seats  and  post- 
ures interfering  with  the  natural  functions  of  one 
or  the  other  of  the  organs,  overheated  rooms,  de- 
pression arising  from  fear  or  dislike  of  the  teacher  or 
the  school  restraint,  envy  of  the  more  gifted  and 
preferred  students,  self-distrust,  want  of  cheerful- 
ness or  lack  of  harmonizing  physical  and  moral 
surroundings. 

With  so  many  drawbacks  to  health,  strength, 
working  capacity  and  good-will,  what  wonder  that 
the  funncling  system  of  the  schools  interfering  in 
so  many  ways  with  indi\'iduality  and  energy,  fur- 
nished so  small  a  quota  of  the  great  men  of  the 
world. 

Sir  Isaac  Newton  ranked  very  low  in  school  until 
the  age  of  twelve.     Sheridan  was  pronounced  an 


Race  Education  and  Hygiene.  127 

incorrigible  dunce.  Goldsmith  was  dull  in  his  youth, 
and  Shakespeare,  Gibbon,  Davy  and  Dryden  have 
given  at  school  not  the  slightest  evidence  of  their 
future  success.  The  character  given  to  the  great 
Swedish  chemist,  Berzelius,  in  his  school  certificate, 
is  "  Indifferent  in  behavior  and  of  doubtful  hope." 
Walter  Scott  passed  for  "  the  thickest  skull  in  the 
school."  Milton  and  Swift  were  justly  celebrated 
for  stupidity  in  childhood. 

That  our  schools  look  more  to  geography,  gram- 
mar and  spelling  than  to  life,  health  and  strength 
of  the  rising  generation  may  be  seen  from  the  last 
report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  in  which 
Dr.  Thomas  F.  Hunter,  of  Buffalo,  is  quoted  to 
have  said  in  his  inaugural  address  before  the  Medi- 
cal Society  of  the  State  of  New  York :  "  In  the 
primary  department  little  children  have  hardly 
room  to  breathe  and  stretch  out  their  little  arms. 
The  United  States  hospitals  allow  from  800  to 
1,200  cubic  feet  of  air  to  the  individual.  The  Brit- 
ish India  jails  give  the  prisoners  648  cubic  feet  of 
air.  Some  of  our  schools  give  our  (growing?)  chil- 
dren 56  cubic  feet !  No  wonder  that  scarlet  fever, 
diphtheria,  typhoid  /ever  and  blood  poisoning  of 
every  sort  are  more  or  less  prevalent.  A  large  pro- 
portion of  these  dread  disorders  are  generated  and 
propagated  in  our  public  schools.  But  acute  dis- 
eases  are    not    the    only    results    of  this    criminal 


128  Race  Education  and  Hygiene. 

crowding.  Tuberculosis,  scrofulous  and  brain  affec- 
tions, developed  at  various  periods,  are  generated 
in  our  schools.  Better  for  society  and  better  for 
themselves  would  it  be  that  these  infants  were  not 
educated  at  all  than  at  such  risk." 

And  such  schools  may  be  found  in  every  large 
city  of  the  land  ! 

The  average  number  of  cubic  feet  to  the  scholar 
in  the  schools  of  Philadelphia  is  143.  The  propor- 
tion of  carbonic  acid  to  the  air  is  5CX)  per  cent, 
larger  in  these  crowded  rooms  than  in  the  normal 
atmosphere,  and  cannot  but  vitiate  the  blood. 
Every  individual,  says  Dr.  Bell,  requires  2,000  feet 
of  fresh  air  every  hour,  and  if  only  300  feet  are 
allowed  to  the  scholar,  the  air  must  be  changed 
every  twenty  minutes,  and  with  less  provisions  con- 
tamination is  sure  to  follow ;  the  sensibilities  are 
blunted,  the  intellect  is  obtused ;  stupidity,  idiocy 
and  physical  deformity  are  promoted.  The  de- 
pressed condition  of  the  children  in  our  schools 
predisposes  them  to  epidemics,  from  which  they  suf- 
fer also  more  intensely  than  others. 

An  examination  of  the  public  schools  of  Brook- 
lyn, in  1874,  showed  50,  49,  30,  29  and  even  as  lit- 
tle as  24  cubic  feet  of  air  to  tlie  scholar.  Such  is 
the  condition  of  the  schools  in  Brooklyn.  It  is,  as 
we  have  seen,  not  much  bettor  in  Philadelphia, 
and  very  much  the  same  all  over  the  country. 


Race  Education  and  Hygiene.  129 

Dr.  Howard  shov/s  that  our  present  system  of 
Education,  treating  alike  all  scholars,  is  injurious 
to  many,  weakens  body  and  mind,  and  is  one  of 
the  causes  of  the  increase  of  insanity. 

Is  it  not  time,  then,  that  our  schools  be  put 
under  the  sanitary  supervision  of  competent  physi- 
cians, as  advocated  by  the  Social  Science  Asso- 
ciation ? 

Theoiy  and  practice  have  both  established  the 
hygienic  effect  of  gymnastics,  never  more  indispen- 
sable in  childhood  or  mature  age  than  under  our 
present  division  of  labor,  which  affords  hardly  to 
anybody  the  harmonious  exercise  of  all  the  parts 
and  organs  of  his  body.  Still  our  schools  are  crimi- 
nally indifferent  about  this  reform,  alike  necessary  to 
the  health  and  development  of  the  human  system. 

The  one-sided  mental  culture  of  our  seminaries 
leads  to  mental  degeneracy.  The  criminal  pride 
and  foolish  vanity  of  the  world,  the  excess  of  imagi- 
nation and  passion,  and  other  disturbing  elements 
cultivated  by  our  literary  schools,  prepare  the  way 
for  insanity,  to  which  students  thus  deteriorated 
fall  an  easy  prey  in  after-life. 

But  it  is  not  necessary  to  enter  upon  a  hygienic 

analysis  of  our  present  scholastic  system.    Dr.  Ray, 

a  most  eminent  observer,  sketches  in  a  few  lines 

the  future  mothers  of  our  physically  enfeebled  race, 

as  sickl)!  young  women,  daughters  of  healthy  moth- 
6* 


130  Race  Education  and  Hygiene. 

ers  who  went  to  school  hale  and  hearty,  and  re- 
turned with  an  enfeebled  constitution,  the  face  pale 
and  the  spine  not  infrequently  curved,  to  give  ex- 
istence to  children  as  weak  as  themselves. 

The  examination  of  a  noted  physician  proved 
the  fact  that  there  was  not  one  girl  out  of  forty 
who  have  spent  two  years  at  a  boarding-school  that 
was  not  more  or  less  crooked. 

Horace  Mann  said  :  "  Degeneracy  must  not  only 
be  considered  as  one  of  the  greatest  calamities  that 
can  befall  a  people,  but  it  must  be  entered  on  the 
catalogue  of  its  greatest  sins."  Again,  the  same 
eminent  educator  says:  "  As  the  inevitable  conse- 
quence of  unhealthful  habits,  debility  or  sickness 
ensues,  old  age  is  anticipated,  feeble  parents  are 
succeeded  by  feebler  children,  the  lineage  dwindles 
and  tapers  from  less  to  less,  the  cradle  and  swad- 
dling clothes  are  frequently  converted  into  the 
coffin  and  shroud,  occasional  contributions  are  sent 
off  to  deformity,  to  idiocy  and  insanity,  until  sooner 
or  later,  after  incredible  sufferings  and  abused  and 
outraged  nature  finding  all  her  commands  broken, 
her  admonitions  unheeded,  her  punishments  con- 
temned, applies  to  the  offending  family  her  sov- 
ereign remedy  of  extinction."  The  same  veteran 
says:  "On  the  broad  and  firm  foundation  of  health 
alone  can  the  loftiest  and  most  enduring  structure 
of  the  intellect  be  reared." 


Race  Educatio7i  and  Hygiene.  131 

Nervous  diseases  are  daily  becoming  more  fre- 
quent, and  our  mad  houses,  though  of  the  size  of 
towns  and  daily  increasing  in  number,  are  over- 
flowing with  their  unhappy  tenants. 

We,  therefore,  insist  upon  Race  Education,  or 
Hereditary  Culture,  which  clearly  implies  a  human- 
ity, sound  in  body,  vigorous  in  mind,  skilful  in.  per- 
forming, inventive  in  conception  and  well-balanced 
all  over. 

Our  definition  of  Education  excludes  both  ex- 
tremes, the  past  ineffectual  formalism  as  well  as 
the  anti-ideal  or  unethical  realism,  which  would 
fain  press  Education  into  the  service  of  a  selfish 
industrialism. 

Health  is  the  first  condition  of  success  and  hap- 
piness, and,  hence,  hygiene  and  gymnastics  are  the 
first  steps  in  Education.  Gymnastics  direct  the 
organic  activity  of  the  body  from  the  great  nerv- 
ous centres  to  the  muscular  system,  and  lessen 
thereby  an  excess  of  sensibility,  which,  among 
other  baneful  influences,  counts  also  that  of  a 
premature  and  morbid  sexual  development,  end- 
ing in  that  terrible  vice  which  destroys  the  youths 
of  the  land  by  the  tens  of  thousands.  Our  one- 
sided Education,  failing  to  combine  physical  with 
mental  exercise,  is  greatly  responsible  for  this  race- 
deteriorating  pest. 

Too  many  lessons  lead   to  evening  studies,  an 


132  Race  Education  and  Hygiene. 

excited  brain,  an  unsound  sleep,  dreams  and  self- 
pollution.  Muscular  exercise  and  fatigue  induce  a 
sound  sleep  and  a  clear  head  for  morning  study. 

Germany  is  following  in  the  traces  of  ancient 
Greece,  and  gymnastics  form  a  part  of  its  common 
schools,  of  which  it  is  fast  reaping  the  benefit. 

Prof.  Tyndall,  like  others,  strongly  condemns 
our  one-sided  culture.  "  Few  persons,"  he  says, 
*'  are  aware  how  great  a  promoter  of  study  labor  is. 
Those  whose  occupations  are  of  the  intellectual 
kind,  frequently  become  brain-weary,  and  this  sort 
of  weariness  is  very  exhausting.  The  brain  needs 
rest,  gets  it  most  effectually  in  muscular  toil, 
and  returns  to  study  with  a  keen  appetite." 
Tyndall  recommends  alternation  of  farm  and  shop 
work  with  study,  and  concludes,  "  This  habit  of 
work  should  be  formed  early  in  life,  if  we  would 
have  it  a  source  of  pleasure.  Work  is  the  greatest 
educator  and  blessing  that  we  have  or  are  likely 
to  have."  And  this  initiation  in  the  mechanical 
arts,  horticulture  or  agriculture,  while  affording  re- 
laxation from  mental  exercise,  would  prepare  us 
for  the  active  duties  of  life,  and  add  greatly  to  our 
material  wealth. 


PART    III. 

KINDERGARTEN   AND   INDUSTRIAL    EDUCATION. 

For  hundreds  of  years  universities  absorbed  all 
the  care  of  governments ;  to-day  the  vaster  impor- 
tance of  common  schools  is  conceded.  But  we 
venture  to  say,  the  foundation  must  be  laid  deeper 
and  lower  still — in  infant  schools,  where  the  senses 
are  developed,  moral  and  industrious  habits  are 
formed,  the  taste  is  improved,  and  the  finer  feel- 
ings, which  give  fibre  to  the  will,  are  cultivated. 

But  while  the  highest  interests  of  humanity  de- 
mand the  formation  of  national  infant  schools,  the 
immediate  material  interests  of  the  industrial 
classes  call  for  them  as  an  opportunity  for  early 
art  training,  the  development  of  the  faculty  of 
form,  combination  and  invention,  as  they  can  only 
compete  with  machinery  in  art  and  ornamental 
industry. 

The  daily  increasing  temptations  of  all  classes 
convince  all  of  the  urgency  of  moral  training,  the 
want  of  which  has  not  a  little  to  do  with  our  almost 
universal  loss  of  trust  and  confidence,  and  the  con- 
sequent crisis  we  are  passing  through. 

ff33) 


1 34         Kindergartens  and  Infant  Edueation. 

Through  the  inactivity  of  our  intellectual  facul- 
ties in  early  infancy  we  become  more  apt  to  imi- 
tate and  form  habits  good  or  bad,  and,  hence,  the 
importance  of  training-schools  at  that  age. 

Our  sensations  and  their  gradations,  even  those 
of  touch,  smell  and  taste,  and  especially  those  of 
sight — which  suggest  form  and  magnitude  and  lead 
to  the  perception  of  order  and  beauty — and  ^those 
of  hearing — which  imply  a  succession  of  time  and 
harmony — are  all  elements  of  thought  and  lead  to 
the  formation  and  development  of  the  mind.  This 
cultivation  of  the  mind  begins,  then,  with  the  ex- 
ercise of  the  senses,  and  especially  of  the  eye,  best 
cultivated  by  Kindergarten  training  adapted  for  the 
purpose  and  by  the  art  of  drawing  continued  in 
after  years. 

From  the  very  birth  of  man,  sensations  deepen 
into  perceptions,  perceptions  by  repetition  form 
memory,  memory  develops  into  imagination ;  the  ab- 
sent object  is  imagined  and  calls  forth  desire,  which 
grows  into  passion  ;  impressions  force  a  compari- 
son and  give  rise  to  judgment,  which  again  devel- 
ops into  reason  ;  and,  hence,  the  importance  of 
coming  in  contact  with  living  nature  and  her  grand 
living  realities,  the  source  of  all  healthy  sensation 
and  perception,  the  fountain-head  of  all  higher 
mental  life,  and  the  necessity  of  feeding  the  minds 
of  children  through  their  senses   and   not  to  blur 


Kindergartens  and  Infant  Education.         135 

their  minds  through  words  —  the  imperfect  shad- 
ows of  things.  It  is  from  the  freshness  of  the  sen- 
sations and  perceptions,  derived  from  the  constant 
intercourse  with  Hving  nature,  that  the  self-made 
man  obtains  his  vigor  and  success  in  life. 

When  character  and  individuality  and  the  culti- 
vation of  virtues,  like  order,  steadiness,  neatness, 
industry,  wisdom  and  love,  and,  in  general,  a  better 
and  happier  humanity  will  be  aimed  at  in  Educa- 
tion, Kindergarten,  in  which  the  development  of 
these  traits  is  the  only  business  of  the  teacher  and 
his  young  pupils,  will  be  assigned  the  first  place  in 
the  rearing  of  the  race.  As  long,  however,  as  the 
cramming  down  of  the  fragments  of  half-digested 
knowledge  is  taken  for  the  proper  work  of  the 
school,  the  race  will  be  uneducated  and  suffer  se- 
verely and  variously,  in  spite  of  our  boasted  insti- 
tutions of  learning,  and  in  proportion  to  the 
undeveloped  nature  of  its  positive  elements  of 
physical,  mental  and  moral  strength. 

The  words  of  Lord  Brougham  are  always  worth 
considering,  and  he  dwells  upon  it  as  a  weighty 
matter  in  connection  with  national  infant  schools, 
that  a  child  can  and  does  learn  more  before  the 
age  of  six  years  than  it  does  or  can  learn  after  that 
age  during  his  whole  life,  however  long  it  may 
prove  to  be.  Children,  he  says,  with  curiosity, 
frankness  and  candor,  become  soon  unwilling  to 


136        Kmdergartens  and  Infant  Education. 

learn,  turn  stubborn  and  sullen,  and  even  full  of 
base  fear  and  falsehood,  from  want  of  early  Educa- 
tion and  infantile  tuition. 

If  colleges  and  universities  turn  out  men  full 
of  fine  speeches  and  sermons,  only  Kindergarten 
schools  can  turn  out  men  and  women  of  fine  moral 
dispositions  and  such  sterling  mental  parts  as  will 
make  them  citizens  of  solid  worth. 

Kindergarten  sounds  very  poetic,  though  its  ori- 
gin is  deeply  realistic.  Froebel's  heart  sunk  within 
him  at  the  misery  of  the  masses,  whose  children  are 
pining  away  within  the  dingy  walls  of  dark  and 
damp  tenement  apartments.  He  longed  to  see 
men  free  and  happy,  which  they  cannot  be  without 
activity;  but  to  be  active  they  must  be  healthy, 
and,  hence,  he  insisted  that  the  pale  little  prisoners 
of  the  poor  should  be  congregated  in  schools  con- 
nected with  gardens,  that  heaven's  free  air  may 
have  access  to  them  and  give  them  strength  to  act 
and  to  live.  Next  to  bodily  vigor,  mental  activity 
is  requisite  to  a  perfect  life.  The  dwellings  of  the 
poor  offer  but  little  variety  of  impressions  and  yield 
but  little  food  to  the  perceptive  powers,  the  imagi- 
nation, the  will,  the  ;Esthetic  faculty;  and  the  social 
virtues  have  no  chance  at  all  in  the  isolation  of  the 
dwellings  of  the  poor,  where  the  dear  little  ones 
are  not  infrequently  locked  up  as  brutes  in  cages, 
while  the  parents  are  out  to  work. 


Kindergartens  and  Infant  Education.         1 37 

That  in  England  408,461  infants  of  the  ages  be- 
tween three  and  six  years  attend  infant  schools,  or, 
according  to  the  report  of  the  Commission  of  the 
Duke  of  Newcastle,  12.17  per  cent,  of  the  popula- 
tion under  5  years,  and  in  France  418,768  infants 
of  the  same  ages  are  in  public  halls,  proves  suffi- 
ciently the  practicability  of  infant  schools,  and  that 
they  could  be  made  beneficial  to  the  highest  de- 
gree to  the  race  by  the  training  and  direction  given 
to  the  physical  and  mental  activities  of  the  young 
before  they  take  the  wrong  direction,  into  which 
they  are  often  pushed  by  vicious  hereditary  ten- 
dencies. 

The  progress  of  the  Kindergarten  schools  in  the 
last  few  years  is  a  guarantee  of  their  ultimate  suc- 
cess. There  were  but  twelve  in  the  United  States 
in  1 87 1.  The  following  table,  taken  from  the  Com- 
missioner's late  report,  shows  their  growth  in  the 
last  few  years : 

1873.        1874.        1875.        1876. 
Kindergarten,  ...         42  55  95  130 

Teachers,     ....         73  125  216  364 

Pupils, 1,252         1,636         2,809        4.090 

St.  Louis  has  made  a  lively  beginning  of  incor- 
porating the  Kindergarten  system  in  the  primary 
department  of  public  instruction.  Boston  has  en- 
tered upon  the  same  experiment. 

The  Kindergarten  demands  the  highest  capacity 


1 38         Kindergartens  ajid  Infant  Education. 

in  the  teacher,  shows  clearly  the  object  of  Educa- 
tion, and  how  to  reach  it ;  the  teacher  studying 
and  developing  the  pupil,  as  books  do  not  step  in 
between  the  two  and  defeat  the  true  object  of 
Education. 

Once  the  presence  of  the  father  assisted  the 
mother  in  the  government  of  the  children  ;  to-day 
the  factory  or  the  business  house  calls  him  away 
from  his  home ;  and  the  mother,  burdened  wdth 
additional  cares  and  labors  in  and  out  of  the  house, 
can  impossibly  attend  with  an  even  temper  to  the 
difficult  task  of  properly  training  her  children.  The 
generality  of  mothers  have  to  do  their  own  work, 
their  cooking,  washing,  sweeping,  mending,  nursing 
and  taking  care  of  babies  ;  and  shall  they  be  made 
also  to  train  and  educate  our  little  children  ?  Is 
it  a  wonder  that  women  are  weakened,  break  down 
in  body  and  mind  and  transmit  their  feebleness  to 
their  children  ? 

We  insist  upon  it  that  the  father's  absence  and 
the  increased  responsibilities  and  cares  and  labors 
of  women  to-day,  together  with  the  irritability  of 
our  excited  nerves,  make  it  a  necessity — both  for 
mothers  and  children — that  the  latter  are  managed 
by  infant  schools,  which  would  thereby  much  im- 
prove the  health  of  overburdened  mothers,  and,  in 
consequence,  improve  the  race. 

As  the  house   is  dead   and    empty  without  the 


Kindergartens  and  Infant  Education.         1 39 

presence  of  the  blessed  little  ones,  so  is  the  nation 
without  its  public  nurseries,  in  which  alone  our 
children  can  be  properly  trained. 

Oh !  what  bliss  is  in  store  for  the  race,  when 
juvenile  processions  of  sweet  children  will  on  fes- 
tive occasions  brighten  the  careworn  brow  of  the 
workers  of  the  nation.  The  lamb-like  innocence, 
beaming  from  the  angelic  little  faces,  will  do  more 
toward  purifying  the  moral  atmosphere  of  the  land 
than  all  opposition  parties. 

Far  from  being  an  innovation,  we  find  that  Boston 
had  already  in  1823  an  infant  school  of  130  children. 

The  growing  difficulty  of  attaining  success  in 
the  complexity  of  our  modern  relations,  the  ad- 
vantage a  cultivated  intellect  bestows,  and  the 
continuous  exercise  of  this  faculty,  render  it  super- 
fluous to  dwell  upon  the  necessity  of  mental  train- 
ing at  school. 

In  proportion  as  men  will  be  expected  to  do 
something  well  in  life,  the  development  of  their 
faculties  and  energies,  and,  hence,  their  early  train- 
ing will  become  more  important.  The  infant  school, 
therefore,  must  be  something  different  from  a  mere 
play  or  singing  school ;  and,  least  of  all,  must  the 
children  be  crammed. 

Infant  schools  cannot  but  become  worse  than 
useless  when  children  are  taught  in  them  in  the 
manner  of: 


140         Kindergartens  anel  Infant  Eelu cation. 

G,  is  for  Goshen,  a  rich  and  good  land, 
H,  is  for  Horeb,  where  Moses  stand. 
I,  is  for  Italy,  where  Rome  stands  so  fair. 
J,  is  for  Joppa,  and  Peter  lodged  there. 
K,  is  for  Kadesh,  where  Miriam  died, 
L,  is  for  Lebanon,  can't  be  denied. 

Froebel's  games  must  not  be  allowed  to  become 
monotonous,  but  the  individuality  of  the  teacher 
and  the  pupil  must  endow  them  with  a  daily  fresh- 
ness, which  renders  them  a  delightful  exercise  to 
the  minds  and  bodies  of  the  children.  The  teach- 
ers of  infant  training-schools  do  a  most  noble  work 
and  must  have  warm  hearts  and  active  minds. 

Race  Education,  aiming  at  permanent  qualities 
and  fixed  tendencies  in  the  race,  cares  more  for 
infant  training  than  collegiate  teaching.  The  latter 
may  give  us  masters  or  commanders,  who  have 
neither  the  will  nor  the  disposition  to  practice  the 
laws  they  lay  down  for  the  regulation  of  others ; 
it  may  make  diplomats  disposed  to  take  advantage 
of  the  ignorance  of  the  multitudes  ;  but  infant  train- 
ing makes  men  who  are  a  law  to  themselves,  and 
who  succeed  not  by  the  folly  and  faults  of  other 
men,  but  by  their  own  skill  and  industry. 

It  is  a  sort  of  malign  providence  in  the  state  to 
educate  the  citizen  just  sufficiently  to  make  him 
responsible  for  the  law  which  he  may  be  able  to 
read,  without  developing  in  him  the  power  to  con- 
form to  it. 


Kindergartens  and  Infant  Education.         141 

The  culture  of  the  disposition  in  the  young,  which 
is  mostly  effected  by  Hving  example,  is  a  grand 
school  for  the  adult  generation.  But,  alas !  just 
here  is  the  rub.  It  costs  little  or  nothing  to  lec- 
ture. To  give  the  example,  we  have  to  become 
learners  and  workers  ourselves,  and,  hence,  the 
preference  of  barren  teaching  to  fruitful  training. 

If  a  person  well  trained  in  childhood  strays  from 
the  path  of  rectitude,  he  is  easily  redeemed  from 
his  error  through  the  early  instilled  sentiment, 
which,  as  it  were,  waits  but  for  an  opportunity  to 
be  aroused  from  its  dormant  state  into  full  power, 
swaying  again  the  life  and  action  of  the  soul  and 
purging  it  from  vice  and  crime. 

Race  Education  lays  most  stress  upon  the  culti- 
vation and  development  of  a  sound  body,  for  where 
health  and  vigor  are  wanting,  nothing  great  or  good 
can  be  achieved,  neither  intellectually  nor  other- 
wise, and  nations  as  individuals  lose  their  hold 
upon  success  and  pre-eminence  with  the  loss  of 
physical  energy. 

Still,  though  our  main  care  in  dealing  with 
infancy  is  the  attainment  of  bodily  health  and 
strength,  we  may  and  must  lay  the  foundation  to 
intellectual  greatness  already  in  the  nursery.  It 
has  been  observed  by  Beale  that  fixing  the  atten- 
tion steadily  upon  one  object,  or  the  complete 
concentration  of  mind,  makes  the  Newton  or  Leib- 


142         Kindergartens  and  Infant  Education. 

nitz.  And  this  faculty  may  be  cultivated  in  the 
nurser}'  by  riveting  the  attention  of  a  child  to 
whatever  he  is  doing,  until  he  comprelicnds  as 
much  of  it  as  his  age  permits  before  he  passes  to 
anything  else.  Children  are  so  apt  to  fly  from  one 
thing  to  another  with  too  much  rapidity  to  thor- 
oughly acquire  a  knowledge  of  one  thing  before 
they  begin  to  examine  another. 

By  a  wise  control  over  the  appetites  and  propen- 
sities of  our  children  the  foundation  is  laid  to  that 
self-command  in  them,  without  which  no  real  hap- 
piness in  life  is  possible. 

Let  children  observe  and  learn  facts,  storing  their 
minds  with  material  for  a  later  age  when  the  higher 
faculties  will  begin  to  combine  and  compare  ideas. 

We  take  only  notice  of  what  a  child  learns  by 
set  lessons,  forgetting  how  much  he  learns  by  ob- 
servation of  innumerable  facts  and  the  acquisition 
of  language. 

Premature  decrepitude  and  death  are  often  the 
fruit  of  forcing  the  mind  and  neglecting  to  strength- 
en the  body. 

Proper  digestion,  perspiration,  exercise  and  res- 
piration are  requisite  to  the  proper  action  of  the 
brain.  Lessen  the  quality  of  the  blood  by  impure 
air,  or  the  quantity  by  insufficiency  of  food,  and 
the  brain  lacks  its  proper  stimulus. 

Race    Education    aiming    at    permanent    effect 


Kindergartois  and  l7ifant  Education.         143 

through  organic  improvement  seeks  to  ascertain 
in  the  nursery  the  temperament,  constitution,  idio- 
syncrasies of  the  various  organs  and  their  functions, 
morbid  affections,  hereditary  tendencies  and  habits 
of  those  trusted  to  its  charge.  It  being  ascertained 
that  the  child  we  are  to  manage  is  of  a  biHous,  san- 
guine, nervous  or  lymphatic  temperament,  of  a 
weak  or  powerful  constitution,  scrofulous  or  phthit- 
ical,  with  a  hereditary  tendency  to  insanity,  habits, 
surroundings  and  a  mode  of  living  are  to  be  chosen 
opposing  the  development  of  the  evil  tendencies 
feared. 

It  is  in  the  nursery  that  the  habit  must  be  estab- 
lished of  conforming  to  the  hygienic  laws  of  our 
being,  a  habit  that  determines  the  whole  of  life, 
and  is  positively  of  itself  sufficient  to  insure  our 
success  and  happiness  in  life ;  and  punctuality  as 
regards  food,  sleep,  temperature,  evacuations,  cloth- 
ing, etc.,  affords  a  constant  opportunity  for  the 
establishment  of  this  habit  of  conforming  to  the 
hygienic  laws  of  our  being;  and  this  opportunity 
begins  with  our  existence,  and  will  do  more  for  us 
than  all  later  precepts  and  exactions. 

The  brain  of  the  young,  soon  over-worked,  dis- 
turbs the  functions  of  nutrition  and  produces  indi- 
gestion so  common  among  us,  as  we  over-task  our 
children  at  school  and  ourselves  in  whatever  enter- 
prise we  mciy  be  engaged  ia 


144         Kindergartens  and  Infant  Education. 

It  is  the  excess  that  injures.  A  proper  amount 
of  physical  and  mental  activity  promotes  the  nerv- 
ous activity  requisite  for  the  healthy  functions  of 
the  human  system. 

Temperance  and  exercise  of  body  and  mind  must 
be  insisted  upon,  without  which  health  of  body 
and  mind  are  impossible  and  life  becomes  a  tor- 
ment. 

Though  all  faculties  are  to  be  trained,  still  they 
are  to  be  subordinate  to  the  intellectual  powers, 
which  must,  above  all,  be  called  into  active  exer- 
cise, especially  as  we  are  naturally  prone  to  yield 
to  our  animal  propensities. 

As  the  formation  of  regular  habits,  self-control 
and  order  are  of  the  highest  importance,  a  good 
nurse  will  lay  the  foundation  to  all  these  habits, 
and  secure  at  the  same  time  the  health  of  the  child 
by  invariable  order  in  the  periods  of  feeding  and  in 
all  other  matters. 

Much  can  be  done  for  the  future  happiness  of 
the  child  by  a  cheerful  nurse,  who  avoids  harsh 
tones.  A  discordant  voice  and  ill-tcmpcred  mother 
are  sure  to  beget  moroseness  in  the  child,  and  lay 
the  foundation  for  future  misery.  Gloom  and  de- 
pression, says  Taylor,  during  childhood  debilitate 
body  and  mind.  A  sorrowful  child,  full  of  unkind- 
ness  and  misfortune,  develops  among  the  lowest 
class  a  ferocity,  which  startles  from  the  commission 


Kindergartens  and  Infant  Education.         145 

of  no  crime.  An  unhappy  childhood  is  often  the 
cause  of  a  wrong  life,  for  it  perverts  the  judgment 
and  natural  feelings  of  man  ;  depression  impairs  the 
functions  and  lowers  the  tone  of  body  and  mind. 

Bearing  in  mind  all  the  time  that  the  physical 
growth  and  development  is  at  this  tender  age  im- 
portant beyond  every  other  consideration,  we  still 
say,  more  can  be  done  for  the  future  mental  devel- 
opment of  the  child  in  the  first  two  years,  than  at 
any  future  period,  for  the  child's  powers  of  obser- 
vation can  be  steadied  and  its  curiosity  strength- 
ened, while  we  can  weaken  the  one  by  discouraging 
the  other,  in  order  not  to  be  annoyed  by  the  child 
questioning  us  and  exposing  our  ignorance  besides 
trying  our  patience. 

As  light,  air  and  exercise  are  the  first  requisites 
of  the  young  citizen,  we  will  remark  that  the  fading 
of  the  carpet  must  not  be  allowed  to  interfere  with 
free  access  of  the  rays  of  the  sun,  neither  must  the 
possibility  of  soiling  clean  garments  stand  n\  the 
way  of  free  and  easy  out-door  play,  and  as  a  prop- 
erly warm  and  active  skin  is  the  foremost  preserver 
of  good  health,  we  will  add  here  our  protest  against 
children's  bare  arms  and  legs. 

It  is  a  shame,  our  factories  interfere  even  with 
infant  schools.  But  can  we  not  by  stringent  Vic- 
tory laws,  like  Switzerland,  keep  little  children  out 
of  factories?  Or  are  our  western  prairies  not  as 
7 


146  Education  a  Social  Science. 

fertile  as  the  ice-fields  of  Helvetia,  and  can  the 
American  republic  not  as  well  provide  for  the  fu- 
ture citizen,  as  the  mountainous  land  of  Tell  does 
for  its  children  ? 

EDUCATION  A   SOCIAL   SCIENCE. 

Providence,  that  gives  the  bird  its  beautiful  plum- 
age and  teaches  it  to  sing,  that  joins  suppleness 
to  strength  in  the  tiger,  gives  antlers  to  the  stag 
and  fleetness  to  the  hare,  will  it  not  provide  for  the 
suffering  masses  a  way  of  escape  from  their  miser- 
ies? The  physician  studies  but  one  side  of  human 
life — the  physical — and  that  in  its  abnormal  state. 
The  lawyer  considers  man  in  his  legal  and  hardly 
in  his  moral  or  physical  relations.  The  divine  is 
almost  wholly  absorbed  by  the  world  to  come,  and 
the  suffering  masses  themselves,  and  their  hun- 
gry leaders,  are  too  much  in  the  thickest  of  the 
fight  to  direct  with  judgment  the  details  of  the 
battle. 

May  we  not  look  reasonably  to  the  teacher  for  the 
deliverance  of  humanity  from  its  present  troubles  ? 

Great  educators  are  not  mere  cipherers.  They 
are  lovers  of  the  race,  and  sorrow  with  its  sufferings. 
Luther,  Franke,  Dc  la  Salle,  Rousseau,  Basedow, 
Zinzcndorf,  Pcstalozzi,  De  Fcllcnbcrg,  Obcrlin, 
Wichern,  in  short,  all  who  have  revolutionized  old 
barren   systems,  or  applied  well-known    principLs 


Education  a  Social  Science.  147 

on  a  grand  scale,  were  deeply  exercised  about  the 
social  miseries  of  the  people  they  yearned  to  relieve 
from  the  burdens  that  were  pressing  upon  them. 
Vehrli,  in  Switzerland,  was  so  strongly  convinced 
of  the  necessity  of  the  teacher's  sympathy  with 
the  people,  that  at  his  normal  school  at  Constance 
the  future  teachers  had  to  work  as  hard  and  live  as 
poorly  as  the  commonest  of  the  people,  with  whom 
they  were  to  be  united  in  heart  and  feeling ;  and 
the  success  of  this  system  had  become  so  manifest, 
that  it  has  been  copied  in  numerous  normal  schools 
all  over  Europe,  and  especially  in  those  which  had 
the  good  of  the  people  at  heart  as  the  great  and 
good  Vehrli. 

The  teacher  is  no  theorist,  but  a  practical  worker. 
He  has  the  best  opportunities  for  observing  human 
nature  and  for  acting  upon  it  when  it  is  most  sus- 
ceptible and  least  prejudiced.  He  has  but  one 
desire — the  good  of  the  race — and  the  world  trusts 
and  confides  in  him  to-day  more  than  ever.  Who, 
then,  of  all  men  is  more  suited  for  the  priesthood 
of  social  reform  than  the  teacher  and  educator? 

The  proper  division  of  the  sciences  and  the 
assigning  to  each  of  them  its  proper  work  is  the 
very  foundation  and  beginning  of  their  successful 
cultivation.  Medicine  was  for  long  ages  but  a  part 
of  theology  and  was  practiced  by  the  miracle  work- 
ing and  healing  divine,  and  astronomy  was  left  to 


148  Education  a  Social  Science. 

the  fortune-telling  astrologer;  while  the  chemistry 
of  society,  or  social  philosophy,  like  the  chemistry 
of  nature,  was  left  to  the  goldmakers,  and  shared 
the  same  fate  of  never  rising  in  such  hands  to  the 
dignity  of  a  science. 

Remove  social  science  from  political  economy — 
vulgarly  speaking,  the  art  of  making  money — to 
Education  or  the  art  of  improving  man,  and  social 
philosophy  will  experience  the  same  change  as  the 
science  of  the  heavens  did  when  removed  from  its 
ancient  quackery  to  the  serene  science  of  astron- 
omy, or  chemistry  from  the  goldmakers  to  the 
schools  and  laboratories  of  the  Bcrzelius  and  Rose. 

As  long  as  social  philosophy  was  made  the  ad- 
junct of  political  economy,  man  was  made  sub- 
servient to  wealth,  just  as  wealth  will  be  made 
subservient  to  man  when  political  economy  will  be 
made  an  adjunct  to  social  philosophy. 

Like  law,  medicine  or  theology,  social  philosophy 
must  be  put  in  keeping  of  some  working  profession  ; 
and  there  is  none,  as  we  have  seen,  more  proper 
for  the  cultivation  of  this  noblest  of  all  departments 
than  that  of  the  educator,  who  has  in  his  hands  the 
formation  of  humanity  almost  from  the  very  cradle, 
and  whose  work  is  the  improvement  of  man.  Of 
course,  the  educ.itor  w  ill  make  man  and  iiis  improve- 
ment the  centre  and  circumference  of  social  philoso- 
phy.    But  is  thtrc  any  serious  objcc.i  ju  to  this? 


Education  a  Social  Sci.iice.  149 

Only  in  the  union  of  social  science  and  Educa- 
tion lies  the  success  of  both  and  the  future  of 
humanity. 

Like  the  mills  of  the  gods  the  educator  grinds 
slowly,  but  surely,  and  equals  all  in  the  end.  He 
does  not  convulse  society  with  revolutionary  meas- 
ures ;  but  neither  are  counter  revolutions  possible 
where  he  has  prepared  the  ground  for  the  onward 
movement  of  a  progress  in  keeping  with  the  condi- 
tions of  time  and  place. 

Race  Education  puts  a  new  emphasis  upon 
Lord  Brougham's  celebrated  "  the  schoolmaster  is 
abroad,"  and  endows  it  with  the  force  of  an 
almost  new  inspiration.  The  suffering  masses, 
humanity,  need  not  despair,  the  schoolmaster  is 
abroad.  He  is  intelligent ;  is  in  daily  contact  with 
the  children  of  the  poor ;  his  labors  and  aspirations 
are  for  the  poor ;  their  welfare  is  his  success ;  his 
worldly  prospects  are  modest ;  the  prosperity  of 
the  poor  is  all  he  works  for,  and  this  is  the  highest  re- 
ward of  his  most  ardent  labors.  To  the  teacher  the 
poor  must  look  as  to  their  most  trusty  friend,  who 
will  yet  conquer  for  them  the  sphynx,  answer  her 
queries,  and  solve  the  problem  that  presses  hard 
upon  a  suffering  world  to-day. 

To  fill  this,  his  mission,  the  teacher  must  study 
the  whole  of  man.  He  must  understand  the  gene- 
sis of  physical  debility,  morbidity  and  of  excessive 


150  Education  a  Social  Science. 

rates  of  mortality  ;  he  must  understand  the  genesis 
of  pauperism,  of  drunkenness,  of  insanity,  of  vice 
and  of  crime ;  for  Education  is  the  dietetics  by 
which  all  these  abnormal  developments  are  to  be 
prevented,  and  the  race  and  the  individual  are  to 
be  preserved  and  improved. 

But  if  Education  is  a  social  science,  it  certainly 
cannot  teach,  as  it  does  to-day  teach,  everj'thing 
save  the  principles  of  this  science,  which  is  the 
most  useful  of  all  to  man. 

Horace  Mann  has  successfully  u^ged  upon  com- 
mon schools  the  study  of  human  physiology.  But 
is  the  physiology  of  society  or  political  economy 
less  essential  for  our  social  existence  than  common 
physiology  is  for  the  animal  economy? 

Ignorance  cannot  interfere  with  the  motion  of 
the  stars,  but  it  does  with  the  movements  of  indus- 
try. Passions  and  narrow  interests  blind  us  as  to 
the  facts  and  principles  of  social  science,  and  make 
an  impartial  stud}-  of  the  same  a  double  necessity. 

How  natural  it  is  for  a  laboring  man  to  believe 
that  labor  is  the  only  factor  in  production ;  that 
wages  can  be  raised  or  lowered  at  option  ;  that 
what  is  gained  by  capital  is  taken  from  wages,  and 
that  to  curtail  capital  is  to  improve  wages,  and  the 
like  sophisms,  which  form  the  stock  in  the  conflict 
between  labor  and  capital  and  which  sound  eco- 
nomical teachings  must  help  to  clear  away. 


Education  a  Social  Science.  151 

England,with  its  extreme  centralization  of  wealth, 
real  and  personal,  would  not  enjoy  to-day  the  peace 
and  prosperity  it  does,  had  not  its  Broughams,  its 
Robert  Peels,  its  Chalmers,  its  Chambers,  Charles 
Knights  and  Chadwicks  worked  as  assiduously  for 
the  spread  of  sound  economical  doctrines  as  for 
the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  the  masses. 

Education,  or  race  preservation,  cannot  overlook 
the  laws  of  production,  exchange,  currency,  distri- 
bution and  consumption,  which  can  no  more  be 
violated  with  impunity  than  any  other  laws  of 
nature. 

The  aim  of  Education,  says  Mr.  Blyth,  before 
the  National  Association  of  Social  Improvement, 
is  not  to  make  reading  and  calculating  machines, 
or  manufacturers  of  Greek  and  Latin  verses,  but 
steady,  intelligent  and  thrifty  men,  practicing  regu- 
lar industry,  beneficially  to  society,  and,  therefore, 
profitable  to  themselves ;  men  who  possess  self-re- 
straint to  abstain  from  wasting  or  misusing  the 
product  of  their  industry;  forethought  to  store  a 
portion  of  that  product  against  sickness  or  old  age; 
honesty  and  trustworthiness,  the  prevalence  of 
which  qualities  in  society  enables  confidence  to  be 
felt  that  their  savings  will  be  enjoyed,  and  a  sense 
of  parental  duty  inducing  them  to  seek  to  implant 
in  their  children  a  disposition  similar  to  their  own. 

There  are  plenty  of  opportunities  in  school  life 


152  Industrial  Education. 

to  follow  up  the  lessons  of  industry,  self-restraint, 
forethought,  equity  and  the  like  duties  with  their 
practical  application. 

The  mischief  caused  by  the  economical  ignorance 
of  the  merchant  class  can  only  be  imagined  when 
we  consider  the  universal  calamity  of  our  financial 
crises,  which  are  as  periodic  and  destructive  as  the 
pest  formerly  was. 

If  men  of  science  do  not  teach  at  school  correct 
principles  of  social  science  to  the  advancement  of 
social  order,  peace  and  general  prosperity,  disor- 
ganizers  will  spread  doctrines  subversive  to  society 
and  civilization. 

Whoever  will  succeed  to  arouse  the  nation  to  a 
proper  realization  of  the  danger  that  threatens  our 
future,  from  the  neglect  of  the  duty  of  teaching 
the  people  sound  principles  of  social  science  in  our 
common  schools,  will  prove  himself  a  public  bene- 
factor. 

INDUSTRIAL   EDUCATION. 

The  preservation  and  improvement  of  the  race 
requires  a  certain  degree  of  general  well-being, 
which  depends  to-day  chiefly  upon  the  productive- 
ness of  the  industrial  arts,  which,  therefore,  must 
form  the  chief  concern  of  the  school.  Our  whole 
course  of  instruction  looks  to  general  culture.  The 
adding  of  practical  science  and  industrial  training, 


Industrial  Educatioft.  153 

far  from  materializing  the  schools  and  rendering  men 
machines,  would  only  join  practice  to  theory,  and 
executing  to  planning,  which  humanizes  us  by  the 
inter-penetration  of  thought  and  action.  Science 
and  industry  are  both  gainers  when  they  are  united. 
Once  the  soldier  held  the  scholar  in  contempt ;  to- 
day the  school  and  the  scholar  avoid  the  contact 
with  the  workshop  and  the  mechanic ;  and  yet,  if 
Lord  Bacon  is  right,  the  workshop  is  the  vestibule 
to  real  knowledge,  and  its  methods  are  safer  than 
those  of  Plato  or  Descartes. 

The  school  should  omit  nothing  in  theory  or 
practice  to  make  men  more  productive,  saving, 
forethoughted,  just  and  moral.  Science,  in  its  prac- 
tical application,  the  history  and  description  of  raw 
materials  and  the  fashioning  them  into  articles  of 
industry,  the  management  of  tools,  domestic  and 
political  economy  and  social  science,  form  all-im- 
portant parts  of  the  workingman's  course  at  the 
industrial  school.  The  industrial  colleges  of  the 
United  States  should  graduate  annually  a  thouand 
mechanics  and  artisans,  models  of  skill,  efficiency 
and  reliability.  How  much  more  such  graduates 
would  be  worth  to  the  country  than  the  graduates 
sent  out  by  our  Latin  and  Greek  schools,  the  relics 
of  the  middle  ages. 

We  are  no  more  satisfied  with  verbal  alterations. 
The  abstract  formulas  and  rules  of  science  are  of 
7* 


154  Industrial  Education. 

no  more  practical  use  than  the  fine  points  of  the 
schoolmen  of  the  middle  ages.  Our  infant  schools 
must  build  us  up  by  their  training ;  our  common 
schools  must  use  us  to  experimental  ways  by  their 
constructive  method  of  instruction,  and  our  indus- 
trial schools  must  give  us  opportunities  for  apply- 
ing that  spirit  to  the  practical  arts  of  life. 

A  sensible  people  will  as  well  submit  to  compul- 
sory industrial  training  as  to  spelling  and  grammar, 
especially  as  many  trace  their  miseries  to  the  want 
of  such  training.  One-half  of  the  people  are  out 
of  work,  because  the  other  does  not  know  how  to 
work,  and  has  nothing  to  give  in  exchange  for  the 
labor  of  the  other. 

Or  is  this  idea  of  compulsory  industry  a  dream? 
If  it  is,  it  was  sober  enough  a  dream  for  the  eminent 
jurist  Lieber  to  have  dreamt  it  forty  years  ago. 

Against  the  spirit  of  the  age  Education  is  im- 
potent. Joining  with  it,  Lieber  remarks,  it  yields 
a  permanency  of  results  attested  by  the  stability 
of  the  Chinese  Empire,  in  which  the  Education  of 
the  schools  and  the  spirit  of  the  country  are  of  a 
piece.  Wild  speculation  and  industrial  activity  are 
the  double  tendency  of  this  age ;  the  school  may 
reinforce  the  first  and  lead  to  extravagance  and 
ruin,  or  it  may  sustain  the  latter  and  promote  uni- 
versal well-being. 

In  antiquity,  lessening  human  wants  was  lessening 


Industrial  Education.  155 

the  double  barbarity  of  slavery,  which  supplied 
labor,  and  of  war,  which  furnished  the  markets  of 
the  world  with  slaves.  In  modern  times,  the  in- 
crease of  human  wants  is  the  foundation  of  a  civil- 
ization in  which  labor  is  supplied  by  brains,  direct- 
ing machinery.  Only  when  labor  will  be  coupled 
with  intelligence  and  taste,  and  will  be  efficient,  and 
the  capacity  for  consumption  will  be  universally  in- 
creased by  the  enhanced  productive  power  of  the 
masses,  will  over-production  cease  to  be  a  periodic, 
calamity,  distressing  alike  to  labor  and  capital,  and, 
hence,  the  necessity  of  associating  art  instruction 
and  industrial  training  with  the  common  Education 
of  the  people. 

Or  must  the  children  of  the  industrial  classes 
be  pauperized  before  they  can  get  into  industrial 
schools? 

Is  it  just  or  wise  to  make  industry  the  exclusive 
feature  of  pauper  schools  ?  Is  not  this  degrading 
labor  and  sliding  back  into  the  foul  spirit  of  slavery 
and  indolence,  and  the  contempt  of  poor  humanity? 
Is  it  not  undermining  the  foundation  of  national 
wealth  and  public  morality  and  manhood  ? 

There  are  two  sorts  of  culture,  a  traditional,  oc- 
cupying itself  with  the  opinions  of  the  past,  and  a 
common,  acquainting  itself  with  men  and  things  as 
they  are.  The  first  is  as  barren  as  endless,  and  in- 
accessible to  the  masses,  for  whose  wants  public 


156  Industrial  Education. 

Education  ought  to  be  suited.  The  second  is  suited 
for  the  people,  whose  Education  must  be  such  as 
will  make  them  healthy  and  well  balanced  men,  gain- 
ing a  comfortable  living  by  their  skill  and  industry; 
and  with  health  of  body  and  mind,  and  industry, 
comfort  and  manly  culture  will  not  long  be  miss- 
ing. To  be  plain,  our  schools  are  not  to  furnish  us 
with  young  ladies  and  gentlemen  shining  in  society, 
but  to  fit  men  and  women  for  useful  work  in  a 
world  of  toil  and  labor. 

Our  encyclopaedic  Education  makes  of  everybody 
a  superficial  judge  of  everything;  thorough  uni- 
versal elementary  art  and  technical  training  make 
men  skilful  performers  of  useful  things.  We  want 
workers  and  not  everlasting  talkers.  We  are  all 
critics,  but  where  are  the  artists? 

Once  schools  were  only  attended  by  the  clergy  ; 
and,  hence,  they  were  engrossed  by  Latin.  Later, 
they  were  frequented  by  the  wealthier  classes  and 
became  commercial  in  character.  To-day,  when 
the  working  people  crowd  them,  they  must  be- 
come essentially  industrial.  Drawing,  geometry, 
science  applied,  technical  instruction  and  indus- 
trial training  must  develop  taste,  skill  and  inclina- 
tion for  a  variety  of  mechanical  pursuits.  As 
long  as  five  millions  of  youths  are  annually  un- 
fitted upon  our  school  benches  for  the  plough, 
the  shop  and  the  factor}^  neither  this,  that   or  any 


Industrial  Education.  157 

other  administration  will  relieve  us  of  the  misery 
of  our  times. 

Who  can  count  the  direct  and  indirect  victims  of 
a  half  a  million  of  dens  of  iniquity  in  the  land? 
Who  can  measure  the  depth  of  their  misery  and 
degradation?  What  an  army  of  paupers,  drunk- 
ards, criminals,  insane  and  idiots  !  What  sorrowful 
batallions  of  the  blind,  deaf  and  dumb,  who  come 
into  the  world  loaded  with  other  men's  sins.  And 
the  vicious,  the  proud,  the  avaricious,  slaves  and 
oppressors  greatly  swell  this  sad  list. 

When  men  have  once  been  saturated  with  sin 
and  shame,  benevolent  societies  may  pitying  follow 
them  to  the  grave. 

The  common  schools  must  bring  up  the  people 
for  work  ;  and  a  gentleman  who  thinks  his  children 
above  such  an  Education,  must  have  the  dancing 
master  come  to  the  house. 

Education  alone  can  safely  guide  us  through  life. 
But  Education  must  start  us  on  the  very  way  we 
are  to  travel  through  life.  It  must  make  us,  when 
children,  feel,  think,  live  and  act  as  we  are  to  do 
through  life.  To  pass  our  young  years  upon  school 
benches  entirely,  prepares  us  for  passing  our  lives 
in  the  school  and  not  in  the  world.  There  are 
hours  enough  in  the  day  for  exercising  a  child  in 
all  the  parts  of  life. 

William  Pcnn,  the  founder  of  the  conmionwealth 


158  hid II  St  rial  Education. 

that  bears  his  name,  framed  the  following  provision, 
which  was  adopted  by  the  Provincial  Council  in 
1683:  "That  all  children  within  this  province  of 
the  age  of  twelve  years  shall  be  taught  some  use- 
ful trade  or  skill,  to  the  end  that  none  may  be  idle, 
but  the  poor  may  work  to  live  and  the  rich — if  they 
become  poor — may  not  want." 

Our  Education,  says  the  State  Superintendent 
of  Pennsylvania,  seems  faulty  in  this,  that  too  many 
young  people  are  seeking  a  livelihood  without 
working  with  their  hands.  Of  240  convicts,  re- 
ceived at  the  Eastern  Penitentiary  of  Pennsylvania, 
only  twelve  had  a  regular  trade,  and  of  the  crimi- 
nals of  17  prisons  in  the  United  States  in  1868,  79 
per  cent,  were  without  a  trade. 

Mr.  Edward  Winslow,  of  Boston,  insists  upon 
joining  mechanical  and  industrial  training  to  our 
common  school  exercises.  So  does  Prof.  J.  VV. 
Burns,  of  Philadelphia.  Commissioner  Eaton  de- 
cidedly uses  all  his  resources  to  direct  the  minds 
of  the  teachers  of  the  United  States  to  the  want 
of  a  more  practical  Education ;  and  aptly  quotes, 
in  introducing  the  subject  of  Education  and  Labor, 
the  words  of  Humboldt :  "  The  time  is  not  far  distant 
when  science  and  manipulative  skill  must  be  wedded 
together,  that  national  wealth  and  the  increasing 
prosperity  of  nations  must  be  based  on  an  enlight- 
ened employment  of  natural  products  and  forces." 


Industrial  Education.  159 

Man's  whole  make  of  body  and  soul,  his  wants, 
and  the  whole  structure  of  society,  call  for  the  per- 
fecting of  our  industrial  occupations,  especially  to- 
day, when  the  competition  among  unskilled  labor- 
ers is  so  great,  and  the  power  of  steam  takes  the 
place  of  muscle.  But  under  our  system  of  division 
of  labor,  when  a  man,  making  a  twentieth  part  of 
a  thing,  can  earn  however  scanty  a  living  and  do- 
ing it  all  the  time,  does  it  expeditiously  and  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  employer,  technical  schools  be- 
come a  necessity,  in  which  apprentices  are  taught 
every  part  of  a  process,  and  the  theory  as  well  as 
the  practice,  in  order  to  become  superior  workmen. 

Neighborhoods  and  countries  blessed  with  such 
industrial  institutions  have  distanced  in  the  great 
markets  of  the  world  all  the  competition  of  the 
imperfect  products  of  other  countries,  which  by  this 
sad  experience  have  been  awakened  to  their  com- 
mercial danger. 

Muhlhousen,  Creuzot  and  Besangon,  Avith  their 
celebrated  industrial  schools ;  Belgium,  with  fifty 
such  institutions  and  fifteen  thousand  apprentices, 
who  have  attended  these  schools  with  great  satisfac- 
tion to  themselves  and  the  manufacturers  ;  France, 
with  its  twelve  thousand  of  industrial  scholars  ;  and 
Germany,  with  its  52,127  apprentices  in  fourteen 
hundred  and  fifty  industrial  schools,  are  sufficient 
proof  of  the  practicability  of  such  institutions. 


i6o  Industrial  Education. 

Scott  Russel  shows  the  actual  cost  of  the  techni- 
cal Education  of  a  workman  is  no  more  than  $125, 
and  the  surplus  earning  of  educated  over  uneduca- 
ted labor  of  one  single  year  amounts  to  as  much. 

England  is  almost  carrying  on  a  crusade  against 
the  ignorance  arising  from  want  of  like  institutions 
for  the  technical  training  of  her  people.  It  recog- 
nizes the  utter  failure  of  a  general  Education,  that 
is  not  followed  up  by  a  special  Education  and  train- 
ing in  some  particular  industry. 

A  practical  Education  for  useful  life  is  hereditary  ; 
for,  as  it  is  all  work  and  training,  it  enters  the  very 
make  of  body  and  soul,  while  superficial  scholarship 
profits  very  little  at  present  and  nothing  at  all  in 
the  future. 

Modern  governments  are  expensive  ;  and  if  they 
do  not  assist  the  pursuit  of  industry,  especially  when 
the  scientific  information  and  the  technical  skill  nec- 
essary for  the  complete  mastery  cannot  be  secured 
without  the  assistance  of  public  institutions,  they 
will  soon  find  empty  the  pockets  of  the  people  they 
so  often  rifle. 

Why  should  the  government  not  as  well  provide 
for  the  highest  mastery  of  the  occupations  of  the 
work-people  as  for  the  learned  professions  ? 

Solon  freed  children  from  all  obligations  toward 
their  old  parents,  who  neglected  to  teach  them  a 
trade. 


The  Progress  of  Industrial  Education.      16 1 

Massachusetts  made  this  duty  obHgatory  upon 
parents  by  statute  laws  as  early  as  1642,  and  Con- 
necticut in  1650. 

Almost  forty  years  ago,  Lieber  said  in  his 
"  Ethics  of  Politics,"  that  all  his  investigations 
lead  him  to  the  conclusion  that  modern  crime  is 
very  much  due  to  the  want  of  fixed  occupations. 
Among  358  convicts  in  one  prison  he  found  but 
52,  or  one  in  seven,  who  had  a  trade. 

In  Belgium,  in  districts  in  which  industrial  schools 
are  in  operation,  vagrancy,  the  hotbed  of  crime, 
has  entirely  disappeared,  and  at  Creuzot,  in  which 
industrial  instruction  has  been  in  vogue  since  1841 
though  a  city  of  twenty-five  thousand  inhabitants, 
crime,  and  even  misdemeanors,  have  almost  disap- 
peared, and  three  policemen  form  the  entire  force 
sufficient  to  give  the  people  the  feeling  of  perfect 
security. 

Education,  without  industrial  training,  starves  the 
masses,  breeds  mutiny  and  ends  in  national  suicide. 

Race  Education  most  stringently  insists  upon  in- 
dustrial training  as  the  most  effective  preventive 
of  pauperism,  vice,  crime,  insanity,  and,  in  fact,  of 
every  wrong  from  which  society  suffers  to-day. 

THE   PROGRESS   OF  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION. 

The  progress  in  the  industrial  arts  in  England, 
France  and  Germany  is  not  by  any  means  the  re- 


l62        The  Progress  of  hidustrial  Education. 

suit  of  mere  manufacturing  routine,  which  has  but 
slowly  advanced  the  arts,  until  the  government  has, 
by  the  creation  of  schools  ofdesign,of  art,  and  practi- 
cal science,  spread  the  taste  and  the  principles  requi- 
site for  the  advancement  of  a  higher  industry. 

If  we  are  to  advance  in  the  industrial  arts  for  the 
sake  of  our  commerce,  our  hungry  masses,  the  puri- 
fication of  taste  and  the  delights  of  a  higher  civiliza- 
tion, v/e  must  likewise  found  industrial  schools. 
Our  late  national  exhibition  entitles  us  to  say  that 
with  the  same  art  and  industrial  training,  France, 
England  and  Germany  possess  already  for  many 
years,  we  would  soon  be  more  than  their  equal  in 
the  manufacturing  arts. 

As  far  back  as  1835  the  House  of  Commons  has 
appointed  a  parliamentary  committee  for  ascertain- 
ing the  state  of  art  in  England  and  other  countries, 
the  best  means  for  extending  a  knowledge  of  and  a 
taste  for  art  among  the  manufacturing  classes,  and 
the  state  of  the  higher  branches  of  art  and  the  best 
mode  for  advancing  them. 

The  want  of  instruction  in  design  and  the  absence 
of  public  and  open  galleries  containing  approved 
specimens  of  art  was  pronounced  by  this  committee 
the  chief  cause  of  the  difference  between  the  artistic 
feeling  of  the  English  manufacturing  districts  and 
that  of  similar  districts  of  France  and  other  coun- 
tries.    A  normal   school  of  design  was,  therefore, 


The  Progress  of  Industrial  Education.       163 

determined  upon,  and  the  Government  School  of 
Design  opened  at  Somerset  House,  in  1837.  Every 
student  had  to  devote  himself  to  the  advancem-ent 
of  the  interests  of  manufactures  and  ornamental 
trades.     The  course  of  study  embraced — 

1.  Elementary  instruction,  as  outline  drawing  of 
ornaments  and  of  the  human  figure,  shadowing, 
drawing  from  plaster,  modeling  and  coloring. 

2.  Instruction  in  design  for  special  branches  ;  the 
study  of  fabrics  and  of  such  processes  of  industry  as 
admit  only  of  the  application  of  design  under  cer- 
tain conditions;  the  history  of  taste  in  manufactur- 
ing ;  the  distinction  of  styles  of  ornamentation,  and 
such  knowledge  as  was  calculated  to  improve  the 
tastes  of  the  pupils  and  acquaint  them  with  art. 

In  1841  the  first  common  local  schools  of  art  were 
opened  at  Spitalfields,  Sheffield,  Manchester,  Bir- 
mingham, Coventry,  Nottingham,  Norwich,  Stoke, 
Hanley,  Leeds,  Huddersfield,  Newcastle,  Glasgow 
and  Paisley,  with  2,241  pupils. 

Technical  art  instruction  was  given ;  museums 
were  established  ;  artistic  anatomy,  practical  con- 
struction, vv'ood  engraving,  painting  on  porcelain, 
decorative  art  in  all  kinds  of  woven  fabrics,  paper 
staining,  furniture  and  jewelry,  all  were  treated 
with  the  greatest  attention. 

In  1863  these  schools  of  art  have,  through  the 
continued  care  of  Parliament,  and  the  central  insti- 


164       The  Progress  of  Industrial  Education. 

tution,  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  and  the  general 
interest  of  the  pubHc,  risen  to  90  with  16,480  pupils 
under  instruction,  and  79,305  children  of  poor,  and 
other  schools  were  taught  through  their  influence ; 
and  to-day  117  schools  of  art  give  instruction  to 
20,310  pupils,  with  309  night  classes,  having  11,747 
pupils  and  148,256  scholars  in  poor-schools  all  over 
the  country  under  instruction  in  design. 

That  these  establishments  have  materially  raised 
the  character  of  the  designs  in  all  descriptions  of 
English  manufactures  nobody  doubts. 

The  opening  of  the  trade  schools  at  Bristol,  Wor- 
cester and  other  places,  in  which  building,  mechan- 
ical and  engineering  trades  and  chemical  manu- 
facturing have  made  great  progress  since  1852,  has 
been  successfully  followed  up,  until  in  1870,  799 
have  been  in  full  operation  with  34,283  pupils. 
And  it  is  universally  admitted  that  these  science 
schools  had  a  lasting  effect  upon  the  scientific 
Education  of  the  working  people  throughout  the 
country. 

In  1 861,  82  classes  submitted  to  public  examina- 
tion, such  as  entitles  to  government  support ;  in 
.1870,  2,204  science  classes  were  examined  not  only 
in  mathematics,  mechanics,  drawing,  physics  and 
chemistry,  but  in  practical  work,  testing  the  power 
of  using  the  ax,  saw,  plane,  chisel,  file,  forge,  smith- 
work,  turning,  pattern   making,  moulding,  etc.,  the 


The  Progress  of  Industrial  Education.       165 

rule  being  that  unless  fully  one-half  of  the  science 
students  are  practical  workmen  the  school  has  no 
claim  upon  the  government  for  support.  What 
an  excellent  example  for  our  imitation.  A  school 
that  does  not  aid  the  world  in  its  work  has  no 
claim  upon  its  assistance. 

The  following  table  will  best  illustrate  the  im- 
portance attached  by  England  to  these  practical 
institutions.     Industrial  instruction  was  given  in 

in      9  schools,  with       500  pupils. 
"     38  "  1,300       " 

"     70  "  2,543       " 

"     75  "  3.111       " 

"91  "  4,666       " 

"  120  "  5,479 

"  153 

"  212  " 

"  310 

"  514 

Enough  has  been  said  about  the  industrial,  art 
and  science  schools  of  England,  which  have  made 
it  great  in  the  industrial  arts,  to  show  how  much 
can  be  accomplished  in  a  few  years  by  a  govern- 
ment, which  has  at  heart  the  commerce  of  the 
nation  and  the  welfare  of  the  masses. 

In  France,  national  schools  of  art  and  common 
industrial  schools  have  been  fostered  with  the  same 
care  as  in  England  and  with  the  same  results.  The 
schools  of  arts  and  trades  at  Chalons,  Angers  and 
at  Aix  sent  out  every  year  300  young  men  perfect 


i860 
1861 
1862 
1863 
1864 
1865 
1 866 
1867 
1868 
1869 


6,835 
10,230 
15,010 
21,000 


1 66       The  Progress  of  Industrial  Education. 

in  theory  and  practice  in  a  number  of  trades.  Paris, 
Lyons,  Muhlhausen,  Rouen,  Nimes,  Dieppe,  Ro- 
chclle  and  other  places,  have  excellent  practical 
schools  of  industry.  In  1862,  79  cities  had  indus- 
trial schools,  attended  by  32,cx)0  pupils. 

France  has  two  great  national  agricultural  col- 
leges, seventy  farm  schools,  practical  schools  for 
draining,  etc. ;  three  mining  schools,  the  central 
schools  of  arts  and  manufacturing  at  Paris,  also 
the  famous  Conservatory  of  Arts  and  Industry,  three 
national  schools  of  arts  and  manufacturing  in  the 
provinces ;  in  Savoy,  a  famous  school  for  watch- 
making, the  renowned  Polytechnic  School  at  Paris. 
In  1867,  there  were  in  France  250  special  smaller 
technical  schools,  21  schools  of  design,  12  of  arts 
and  trades,  5  of  hydrography,  4  of  the  technical 
sciences,  4  of  design  for  textile  arts,  lace,  wall- 
paper, furniture,  etc. 

Germany,  which  ranks  high  in  the  industrial 
pursuits,  swarms  with  thorough  practical  technical 
schools,  of  which  Austria  has  45,  Bavaria  36,  Sax- 
ony "j^,  Baden  50,  among  which  are  some  for  watch- 
making, weaving  and  straw  plaiting.  Switzerland 
has,  besides  its  great  polytechnic  institutes,  29  in- 
dustrial schools.  Belgium  has  15  technical  schools 
and  68  national  workshops. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  the  necessity  of 
organizing  industrial  schools  for  our  success  in  the 


The  Progress  of  Industrial  Education.       167 

practical  arts,  commerce  and  the  self-support  of 
the  masses,  who  must  live  by  their  labor.  We 
have  done  more ;  we  have  shown  by  the  example 
of  the  foremost  nations  in  art  and  industry  that 
these  institutions  are  not  only  possible  and  thor- 
oughly practical,  but  do  actually  exist  in  great 
numbers  and  fulfill  all  that  is  expected  of  them. 

Every  lover  of  America  cannot  but  look  with 
pleasure  at  the  following  table,  which  shows  the 
growth  of  schools  of  science  in  the  United  States  : 


1870. 

1871. 

1872. 

1873. 

1874. 

1875. 

1876. 

Schools,  .    , 

17 

41 

70 

70 

72 

74 

75 

Teachers,    . 

144 

303 

724 

740 

609 

758 

793 

Students,     . 

•     1,413 

3,303 

5,395 

8,950 

7,-=44 

7,157 

7,614 

These  schools  of  science  are  an  almost  infinite 
improvement  upon  the  old  Greek  and  Latin  schools, 
which  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  do  more  injury 
than  good ;  and  as  these  schools  of  science  grow 
older,  they  will  become  more  practical  and  teach 
more  science  applied  than  pure  science,  with  which 
a  graduate  leaving  the  college  cannot  profit  the 
world  sufficiently  to  get  in  return  for  his  services 
a  modest  meal.  We  have  hardly  any  schools  of 
industry ;  and  drawing,  as  useful,  and  even  more  so 
than  writing,  to  every  artisan,  is  but  slowly  making 
headway  in  our  common  schools,  the  only  ones  the 
masses  are  able  to  attend. 

It  is  often  expressed  that  technical  pursuits  hard- 


i68       Tlie  Progress  of  Industrial  Education. 

\y  merit  the  attention  of  men  seeking  a  comfortable 
living.  If  this  was  really  so,  and  an  efficient  artisan 
could  not  make  a  decent  living,  communism,  in- 
cendiarism and  every  disorganizing  scheme  against 
a  society,  which  refuses  men  a  living  for  the  labor 
it  requires  of  them,  would  find  almost  an  apology 
in  such  an  unjustifiable  condition.  The  fact  is,  we 
live  in  a  crisis,  in  which  a  fat  bank  account  or 
even  plenty  of  real  estate  is  no  more  security 
against  want  than  labor  is.  An  average  importa- 
tion of  $500,000,000  to  $600,000,000  worth  of 
manufactured  goods  is  evidence  that  we  want  more 
skilled  men.  The  association  of  industry  with  the 
school  and  science,  will  raise  it  to  the  character  of 
art  and  infinitely  vary  it.  No  matter  how  much 
machinery  produces,  as  long  as  men  work  and  ex- 
change their  products,  they  are  benefited.  But 
that  they  may  all  have  work,  industry  must  take 
the  character  of  art,  which  admits  of  an  almost 
infinite  variety  and  demand  ;  for,  of  course,  with 
a  gigantic  producing  machinery,  men  cannot  find 
employment  in  a  few  rude  manufactures.  An 
Arabic  enameled  glass  lamp  set  up  in  the  Louvre, 
became  the  support  of  hundreds  of  artisans  model- 
ing after  it. 

An  industry  raised  to  the  character  of  art  not  only 
gives  bread  to  the  masses,  but  in  purifying  the  ta.ste 
of  the  people  it  improves  their  morals,  for  the  beau- 


TJie  Progress  of  Industrial  Education.       169 

tiful  and  the  good  are  but  different  expressions  of 
the  same  thing. 

Congress  has  manifested  great  wisdom  in  initi- 
ating the  practical  and  scientific  tendency  of  our 
higher  institutions  by  its  munificent  grants  for  the 
establishment  of  agricultural  colleges.  That  it  put 
foremost  agriculture  and  mechanics  next,  is  emi- 
nently proper,  as  the  promotion  of  agriculture  is 
every  way  more  to  be  desired  in  this  country  than 
the  cultivation  of  manufacturing  industry. 

The  National  Bureau  of  Education,  under  the 
able  superintendence  of  John  Eaton,  contributes 
its  full  share  to  rendering  the  educators  of  the  land 
more  practical.  It  does  all  in  its  power  to  show 
the  need  of  the  organization  of  infant  schools.  It 
acquaints  us  with  the  progress  of  technical  Educa- 
tion abroad.  It  makes  plain  by  statistical  investi- 
gations the  bearings  of  Education  upon  the  various 
relations  of  the  nation  as  well  as  of  the  individual. 
It  brings  face  to  face  the  theories  and  practice  of 
the  great  educators  of  the  land,  which  are  thus  cor- 
rected or  supported  one  by  the  other.  The  in- 
fluence of  the  National  Bureau  of  Education  is 
immense,  and  forms  an  epoch  in  the  educational 
activity  of  the  United  States.  It  lifts  the  educa- 
tor to  a  plane  where  he  discerns  all  that  is  advanced 
the  world  over  by  the  leaders  of  thought  in  his 
line,  and  where  he  beholds  Education  in  connec- 
tion with  all  the  great  interests  of  humanity. 


I/O     Ind7(strial  Education  hi  the  I' ni ted  States. 

The  prospected  delineation  of  our  centennial  his- 
tory of  Education  by  the  National  Bureau  is  simply 
stupendous. 

INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

In  the  beginning-  of  the  century,  before  the  full 
tide  of  emigration  had  set  in,  when  land  was 
new  and  cheap,  work  hard  and  plenty  and  help 
rare,  the  farmers*  sons  had  to  do  the  work ;  and 
when  they  had  grown  into  manhood  and  felt  the 
want  of  an  Education,  the  colleges  and  seminaries 
were  glad  to  give  it  to  them  in  exchange  for  their 
labor.  Thus  the  condition  of  the  country  prepared 
for  manual  labor  schools,  and  here,  as  everywhere 
else,  has  theory  perfected  what  practice  has  roughly 
initiated. 

Between  iS2oand  1830  public  opinion  had  taken 
a  decided  stand  on  the  utility  and  feasibility  of 
manual  labor  schools,  which  were  introduced  ever}'-- 
where  at  the  end  of  this  period. 

The  democratic  men  who  cleared  the  woods, 
broke  the  ground  and  made  this  country  and  gov- 
ernment, did  a  good  deal  of  hard  working  and  hard 
thinking ;  and  they  thought  their  children  most 
likely  to  do  the  same  '\{  they  handled  at  college  as 
many  tools  as  books.  They  wanted  their  sons  to 
work  for  their  Education,  and  work  while  they  were 
at  it,  as  they  deemed  thought  only  valuable  when 
work   rendered    it    effective.     They  did   not  want 


Industrial  Education  in  t'le  United  States.     1 7 1 

polish  got  at  the  expense  of  health  and  vigor,  which 
labor  alone  can  give  and  preserve.  Neither  did 
they  want  the  poor,  who  could  not  pay,  but  could 
work  for  their  Education,  to  be  excluded  from  the 
schools.  But,  above  all,  were  they  unwilling  that 
their  sons  should  lose  at  school  their  taste  for  work- 
ing, while  they  acquired  a  taste  for  thinking.  And, 
then,  they  believed  nothing  was  gained  when  inde- 
pendence was  lost ;  and  so,  again,  they  wanted  their 
sons  doubly  to  work  for  their  Education,  that  they 
might  feel  independent  while  they  worked  for  it, 
and  feel  independent  after  they  got  it ;  as  they 
could  live  by  the  plow  or  the  anvil — if  they  could 
not  by  their  profession — and  be  true  to  their  con- 
victions. 

The  eminently  industrial  people  of  Pennsylvania 
took  the  lead  in  this  matter.  The  Manual  Labor 
Academy  near  Philadelphia,  opened  in  1829.  "The 
hours  of  recreation  are  employed  in  useful  bodily 
labor,  such  as  will  exercise  their  skill,  make  them 
dexterous,  establish  their  health  and  strength,  en- 
able each  to  defray  his  own  expenses,  and  fit  him 
for  the  vicissitudes  of  life,"  the  record  reads. 

In  1830  every  invalid  student,  who  resorted  to 
the  Manual  Labor  Academy  and  spent  there  about 
a  year,  was  restored  to  health.  **  When  thought 
shall  need  no  brain,"  the  report  continues,  "  and 
nearly  four  hundred  organs  of  motion  shall  cease 


172     Industrial  Education  in  tJie  United  States, 

to  constitute  the  principal  portion  of  the  human 
body,  then  may  the  student  dispense  with  muscu- 
lar exertion." 

The  House  of  Representatives  of  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania,  by  a  resolution  passed  in  December, 
1832,  directed  a  committee  on  education  to  inquire 
into  the  expediency  of  establishing  at  the  expense 
of  the  state  a  manual  labor  academy  for  the  in- 
struction of  teachers  for  public  schools.  The  com- 
mittee made  out  a  report  as  the  result  of  a  very 
careful  investigation,  of  which  we  will  briefly  state 
the  following  points : 

1.  That  the  expense  of  Education,  when  con- 
nected with  manual  labor  judiciously  directed,  may 
be  reduced  at  least  one-half. 

2.  That  the  exercise  of  about  three  hours'  labor 
daily,  contributes  to  the  health  and  cheerfulness 
of  the  pupil,  by  strengthening  and  improving  his 
physical  powers  and  by  engaging  his  mind  in  useful 
pursuits. 

3.  That  so  far  from  manual  labor  being  an  im- 
pediment in  the  progress  of  the  pupil  in  intellectual 
studies,  it  has  been  found,  that  in  proportion  as 
one  pupil  has  excelled  the  other  in  tlic  amount  of 
labor  performed,  the  same  pupil  has  excelled  the 
other  in  equal  ratio  in  his  intellectual  studies. 

4.  That  manual  labor  institutions  tend  to  break 
down  the  distinction  between  rich  and  poor,  which 


Industrial  Education  in  the  United  States.     173 

exists  in  society,  inasmuch  as  they  give  an  almost 
equal  opportunity  of  Education  to  the  poor  by 
labor  as  is  afforded  to  the  rich  by  the  possession 
of  wealth  ;  and 

5.  That  pupils  trained  that  way  are  much  better 
fitted  for  active  life,  and  better  qualified  to  act  as 
useful  citizens  than  when  educated  in  any  other 
mode  ;  that  they  are  better  as  regards  physical  en- 
ergy and  better  intellectually  and  morally. 

This  report  was  accompanied  v.ith  an  act  to  be 
passed  by  the  Legislature  establishing  a  State  Man- 
ual Labor  Academy. 

New  York  City  had  a  Society  for  Promoting 
Manual  Labor  in  Literary  Institutions,  the  prin- 
ciples of  which  were  expressed  by  Mr.  Wild,  the 
secretary,  in  the  report  of  1833,  in  so  solid  a  man- 
ner, as  to  command  our  attention  even  to-day. 
Our  muscular  system  and  bony  structure,  he  says, 
does  not  look  as  if  we  were  made  merely  for  read- 
ing and  writing. 

The  influences  which  body  and  mind  exert  upon 
each  other  are  innumerable,  incessant  and  all-con- 
trolling ;  the  body  continually  modifying  the  state 
of  the  mind,  and  the  mind  ever  varjang  the  condi- 
tion of  the  body.  Not  the  body  alone,  not  the 
mind  alone,  but  both  united  by  mutual  laws  make 
man.  The  mutual  laws  form  the  only  rational  basis 
for  a  system  of  Education.     A  system  based  upon 


174     Industrial  Education  in  the  (hiitcd  States. 

anything  else  is  wrong.  The  body  is  the  house, 
the  instrument,  the  reflector  and  the  servant  of 
the  mind ;  and  if  it  is  rendered  dark,  dull  and  crip- 
pled, what  is  it  worth,  and  of  what  use  is  it  to  the 
mind  ?     And  what  is  then  the  state  of  the  mind  ? 

The  body  and  the  mind  must  be  educated  to- 
gether. We  must  preserve  the  body  in  the  condi- 
tion which  will  most  favorably  affect  the  mind. 
As  the  best  condition  of  the  mind  always  attends 
the  best  condition  of  the  body,  must  not  a  system 
of  Education,  which  expends  all  its  energies  upon 
the  mind  alone  and  surrenders  the  body  to  chance, 
be  fundamentally  defective?  Is  not  a  system  false, 
which  aims  solely  at  development  of  mind  and  yet 
overlooks  those  very  principles  which  are  indispen- 
sable to  produce  that  development,  and  transgresses 
those  very  laws -which  constitute  the  only  ground- 
work of  rational  Education? 

The  mental  part  of  Education  has  been  vastly 
improved.  But  what  has  meanwhile  been  done 
for  the  body  ?  What  provision  has  been  made  for 
the  daily  wants  of  its  muscles  and  nerves?  What 
aids  have  been  furnished  to  the  organs  of  digestion, 
secretion  and  circulation  ?  What  means  have  been 
provided  for  preserving  the  body  in  its  best  condi- 
tion, or  for  giving  healthful  energy  to  its  func- 
tions, best  securing  to  the  mind  that  permanent 
vigor  which  results  from  such  a  condition  of  bodily 


Industrial  Education  in  the  United  States.     1 75 

organs?  We  have  neglected  the  Education  of  the 
body,  and  with  the  sound  body  the  sound  mind 
has  become  rare.  This  is  no  new  discovery.  Mil- 
ton has,  two  centuries  ago,  urged  the  connection 
of  physical  and  mental  Education.  Locke  has 
done  the  same.  Jahn,  Ackerman,  Salzmann  and 
Franke  have  done  the  same  in  Germany,  and  Tissot, 
Rousseau  and  Lond  in  France. 

As  far  back  as  the  end  of  the  last  centurj^.  Dr. 
Rush,  of  Philadelphia,  recommended  at  length  the 
connecting  of  agricultural  and  mechanical  labor 
with  literary  institutions,  saying,  "  The  student 
should  work  with  his  own  hands  in  the  intervals 
of  study." 

President  Lindsley,  of  the  Nashville  University; 
Professor  Mitchel,  of  the  Medical  College  of  Ohio  ; 
Professor  Harris,  of  the  Medical  Institute  of  Phila- 
delphia ;  President  Fisk,  of  the  Wesleyan  Univer- 
sity, and  Professor  Hitchcock,  of  Amherst  College, 
have  all  earnestly  advocated  the  union  of  manual 
labor  with  intellectual  culture. 

Mr.  Wild  closes  his  very  able  report  with  the 
apprehension  that  the  want  of  the  element  of  phys- 
ical work  in  our  system  of  Education  will  make 
of  us  just  as  degenerate  and  sinking  a  race  as  the 
higher  classes  in  France  were  before  the  great 
revolution,  or  as  the  noble  families  of  Spain  are 
to-day.     But  reports  and  speeches  were  the  small- 


I  "jG     Industrial  Education  in  the  United  States. 

est  part  of  the  work.  Manual  labor  schools  sprung 
up  North  and  South,  and  East  and  West. 

The  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Education  of 
the  Episcopal  Methodist  Church  organized  a  num- 
ber of  manual  labor  schools.  The  Baptists  were 
not  less  active  in  the  cause  of  establishing  like 
institutions. 

The  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  recommended  in 
his  message  the  adoption  of  the  system  of  manual 
labor  in  seminaries  for  teachers.  The  Governor  of 
Georgia  recommended  the  introduction  of  manual 
labor  schools.  The  Legislature  of  North  Carolina 
has  passed  a  bill  incorporating  the  manual  labor 
schools  of  the  State. 

In  the  United  States  Senate,  in  1836,  the  reso- 
lution was  offered  proposing  the  Committee  on 
Public  Lands  to  be  instructed  to  inquire  into  the 
expediency  of  making  a  grant  of  land  to  our  col- 
leges in  each  State  for  the  Education  of  the  poor 
on  the  manual  labor  school  system. 

We  may,  by  way  of  illustration,  mention  but  few 
of  the  many  manual  labor  schools  which  resulted 
from  this  discussion  of  principles  and  legislation. 
Connecticut  had  manual  labor  schools  at  Suffield, 
at  Worcester  and  Haddenfield.  Georgia  had  man- 
ual labor  schools  in  Camden  county,  at  Lawrencc- 
ville  and  Covington.  These  institutions  were  in 
successful  operation,  and  paid  the  students  at  the 


Industrial  Education  in  the  United  States,     i  yy 

end  of  each  term,  $14  to  $30  for  the  work  done  in 
three  hours  per  day. 

In  Kentucky,  Cumberland  College,  at  Princeton, 
was  conducted  as  a  manual  labor  school.  Another 
labor  school  was  at  Lexington. 

In  the  State  of  Indiana  manual  labor  was  intro- 
duced at  Wabash  College ;  and  at  the  Teachers' 
Seminary  at  Madison  the  students  paid  entirely 
by  their  labor  for  all  necessary  expenses,  without 
being  put  back  in  their  studies. 

Dr.  Blyth,  President  of  South  Hanover  College, 
in  the  same  State,  and  organized  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple, says  :  "  Such  schools  give  birth  to  enterprise, 
create  or  perpetuate  habits  of  industry  and  econ- 
omy, generate  and  keep  alive  a  feeling  of  self-sup- 
port and  independence,  preserve  health  and  create 
genius." 

Massachusetts  introduced  a  manual  labor  school 
at  Lexington  and  at  Andover  Seminary. 

In  Missouri,  Marion  College  required  every  stu- 
dent to  work  in  the  shop  or  field  three  hours  daily, 
which  enabled  the  student  to  pay  a  considerable 
part  of  his  expenses. 

In  New  Hampshire,  at  the  manual  labor  school, 
straw-plaiting  was  carried  on  as  a  trade. 

In  New  Jersey,  we  find  manual  labor  introduced 
at  the  Stockbridge  Academy,  in  Madison  county. 

In  the  State  of  New  York,  we  find  the  manual 


178     Industrial  Education  in  the  Ignited  States. 

labor  schools  practically  introduced  by  the  noblest 
of  her  sons,  Gerrit  Smith,  at  Peterboro. 

In  North  Carolina,  the  Donaldson  Manual  Labor 
School  gave  poor  young  men  an  opportunity  of 
getting  the  best  Education  by  paying  for  it  in 
labor. 

Ohio  seems  to  unite  the  industry  of  the  East  with 
the  snap  or  go-aheadativeness  of  the  West.  It  had 
a  manual  labor  school  at  Granville,  prepared  teach- 
ers on  the  same  plan  at  Marietta,  and  had  another 
manual  labor  school  at  Dayton.  At  Lane  Semi- 
nary, on  Walnut  Hills,  near  Cincinnati,  the  com- 
mittee state  that  the  combining  of  three  hours 
daily  labor  in  some  useful  and  interesting  employ- 
ment with  study,  protects  the  health  and  constitu- 
tion of  our  young  men  ;  greatly  augments  their 
physical  energy ;  furnishes  to  a  considerable  extent 
or  entirely  the  means  of  self-education  ;  increases 
their  power  of  intellectual  acquisition  ;  facilitates 
their  actual  progress  in  study  ;  removes  their  temp- 
tation to  idleness  ;  confirms  their  habits  of  indus- 
try ;  gives  them  a  practical  acquaintance  with  the 
common  employments  of  life  ;  inspires  them  with 
independence  of  character  and  the  originality  of 
investigation,  which  belongs  peculiarly  to  self-made 
men.  Printing  was  followed.  The  students  got 
sufficiently  skilled  in  three  weeks'  practice  to  earn 
$2.54  per  week,  working  daily  three  hours.     They 


Industrial  Education  in  the  United  States.      1 79 

followed  also  cabinet  making  with  the  same  good 
results. 

The  Western  Reserve  College,  at  Hudson,  had 
shops  and  tools  provided  for  ihose  who  wished  to 
engage  in  labor.  Some  have  gained,  says  the  col- 
lege report,  only  health  of  body  and  vigor  and 
elasticity  of  mind,  enough  to  pay,  one  would  think, 
for  two  or  three  hours  daily  labor,  while  others  did 
much  toward  defraying  their  expenses.  Oberlin 
was  never  backward  in  the  spirit  of  genuine  re- 
form, and  required  the  students  to  do  daily  three 
hours  of  manual  labor,  with  marked  results  as  to 
the  health  of  the  students,  which  was  made  an 
object. 

The  Keystone  State  has  already  occupied  our 
attention.  The  manual  labor  school  near  Pitts- 
burg had  440  acres  of  land  and  a  three -story 
building  sixty  feet  long.  Chester  county  was  the 
seat  of  a  very  active  association  for  the  adoption 
of  an  improved  system  of  Education,  recommend- 
ing the  establishment  of  a  model  school  combining 
agricultural  and  mechanical  labor  with  literary  and 
scientific  instruction. 

At  Bristol  College,  in  the  same  state,  manual 
labor  in  school  was  found  highly  useful  as  well  as 
economical,  and  the  Episcopal  Recorder,  at  Phila- 
delphia, says,  with  reference  to  this  institution  : 
**  We  hope  to  send  forth  trained  and  strong  men, 


1 80    Industrial  Education  in  the  United  States. 

no  diluted  manhood,  who  associate  vulgarity  and 
meanness  with  all  manual  labor,  or  young  men 
blighted  with  college  diseases.  Sedentary  invalids 
of  every  description  demand  that  systematic  and 
regular  labor  be  incorporated  in  the  very  framework 
of  our  new  institutions.  Manual  labor  and  mental 
culture  ought  to  go  together,  for,  as  Plato  says, 
*'  A  good  Education  imparts  to  the  mind  and  to 
the  body  all  the  power,  all  the  beauty  and  all  the 
perfection  of  which  they  are  capable." 

In  South  Carolina  the  report  of  the  Manual  La- 
bor School  at  Pendleton  says  that  the  manual  labor 
system  in  South  Carolina  has  been  fairly  tried,  and 
that  it  is  decidedly  the  most  advantageous  mode 
of  Education  which  has  ever  been  introduced  into 
this  or  any  other  country. 

Alabama,  Michigan,  Tennessee  and  other  states 
have  interested  themselves  equally  in  this  cause, 
but  enough  has  been  said  to  show  what  our  fathers 
have  thought  and  what  they  have  done  for  manual 
labor  schools. 

About  the  time  of  the  agitation  of  manual  labor 
schools,  1 820-1 830,  the  population  of  the  United 
States,  all  told,  was  not  10,000,000.  Labor  was 
then  mostly  native  and  respected.  The  American 
laborer  w^ted  a  higher  Education  he  could  not  pay 
for  nor  find  free  of  charge.  The  pupil,  who  came 
from  the  plough  or  the  shop,  felt  more  the  bene- 


Industrial  Education  in  the  United  States.     i8i 

fit  of  manual  labor,  which,  indeed,  all  appreciated 
in  all  its  blessed  bearings,  as  the  young  republic 
was  still  full  of  democratic  inspirations.  With  the 
change  of  these  conditions  manual  labor  schools 
lost  in  popularity ;  but  physical  labor  is  so  funda- 
mental a  condition  of  human  existence,  that  these 
institutions  will  never  be  superseded  without  detri- 
ment to  society,  though  their  methods  may  have 
to  be  varied  to  meet  new  wants  and  purposes.  Our 
cities  have  in  the  last  thirty  years  grown  to  the 
size  of  the  largest  cities  of  the  Old  World ;  land 
has  become  rare,  and  the  foreign  population — 
especially  under  the  present  system  of  manufactur- 
ing— is  flocking  more  and  more  into  these  hives  of 
human  beings.  In  these  days  of  steam  and  ma- 
chinery, these  masses  must  be  aided  and  sustained 
to  maintain  themselves  by  an  industry,  skill  and 
knowledge  have  elevated  to  the  character  of  art, 
or  we  all  end  in  chaos  brought  on  by  idleness,  mis- 
ery, vice,  crime  and  a  turbulent  and  despairing 
mob. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  our  fathers 
have  thought  the  union  of  labor  and  study  at  school 
eminently  wise  and  practical  as  well.  We'  do  not 
ask  to  make  of  every  school  a  workshop,  but  we 
insist,  the  most  important  years  of  man  in  which 
his  character  and  habits  are  formed  for  life  and  the 
many  millions  which   arc   spent    on    Education   in 


1 82     Industrial  Education  in  tJic  United  States. 

this  country,  must  have  something  greater,  better 
and  wiser  to  point  to  than  a  little  grammar,  spell- 
ing, arithmetic  and  geography.  Industrial  Educa- 
tion is  not  a  new  crotchet.  It  had  many  years  ago 
a  most  tangible  existence  in  this  country ;  it  is  to- 
day organized  on  a  great  scale  in  Germany,  France, 
Belgium,  Switzerland,  and  is  making  rapid  progress 
in  England.  It  has  been  urged  upon  the  teachers 
and  legislators  of  the  land  by  most  practical  men 
for  the  last  twenty-five  years ;  and  the  modern 
apostle  of  Education,  Pestalozzi,  held  it  suffi- 
ciently important  for  the  school  to  help  the  pu- 
pil to  sustain  himself  in  the  world,  that  he  com- 
bined manual  labor  with  school  instruction. 

We  plead  for  practical  scientific  instruction,  with 
full  application  to  the  industrial  arts  and  life.  We 
plead  for  drawing  that  shall  give  the  scholar  full 
exercise  of  the  eye,  hand  and  imagination,  and 
develop  his  taste  and  skill ;  for  more  geometry,  the 
science  of  form  and  color,  and  the  history  of  indus- 
try and  technology.  We  plead  for  technical  gym- 
nastics in  every  school,  which,  besides  promoting 
physical  development,  shall  give  the  scholar  the 
use  of  the  common  implements  of  the  trades.  We 
plead  for  special  industrial  schools  of  a  nature  to 
assist  in  the  progress  of  the  trades  peculiar  to  cer- 
tain localities  and  districts.  We  plead  for  the  or- 
ganization of  industrial   institutions  of  all  grades 


Industrial  Education  in  the  United  States.     183 

into  one  great  system,  with  a  national  industrial 
university,  at  its  head,  that  shall  inspire  our  hands 
with  great  and  useful  works.  We  plead,  in  fine, 
for  the  cultivation  of  the  industrial  spirit  in  every 
normal  college,  which  is  to  send  out  into  the  world 
teachers  for  the  people,  whose  success  as  well  as 
the  success  of  the  country  depend  on  the  cultiva- 
tion of  industrial  habits. 

In  our  pleading  for  industry  we  plead  for  agricul- 
ture— the  noblest  of  all  industries,  and  the  most 
useful  as  well  as  the  most  elevating  of  them  all — 
and  the  one  in  which  more  than  in  any  other  we 
have  great  nature  as  an  especial  ally  on  our  grand 
and  unequalled  prairies  and  in  the  variety  of  our 
climes,  which  produce  whatever  will  bless  man. 

How  long  still  will  teachers  set  before  them  with 
indifference  of  mind  the  vacant  task  of  making  chil- 
dren read  and  write,  and,  perchance,  know  a  little 
geography,  arithmetic  and  grammar? 

It  is  time  we  spread  the  practical  facts  and  prin- 
ciples of  science,  which  would  make  of  every  laborer, 
mechanic  and  manufacturer  a  thinker  and  an  invent- 
or ;  a  man,  who  by  his  skill  would  largely  contrib- 
ute to  the  pleasures  and  adornments  of  life,  and  add 
to  his  own  happiness  as  well  as  to  that  of  mankind. 
The  capabilities  of  art  and  science  for  making  of 
earth  a  heaven  will  not  be  known  until  pervading 
the  masses,  every  child  in  the  land  will  be  tremu- 


1 84     Industrial  Education  in  the  United  States. 

lous  with  sensibility,  and  love  of  order  and  beauty. 
With  the  energy  of  thought  peculiar  to  practical 
science  and  the  sensibility  attending  art,  every  home 
will  be  the  blessed  abode  of  peace  and  plenty,  of 
love,  order  and  beauty,  in  which  sadness  and  sor- 
row will  be  unknown,  as  all  will  be  industrious  and 
live  in  natural  simplicity,  hardly  ever  visited  by 
sickness,  want  and  misery. 

Such  is  the  future  the  union  of  science,  art  and 
industry  is  to  usher  in.  But  who  has  the  heart  to 
dwell  upon  the  picture  of  the  misery  of  the  laborer 
of  to-day,  who,  unaided  by  art  and  science,  plods 
along  in  the  old  beaten  path  with  but  a  poor  re- 
turn for  his  toil,  and  lives  in  squalid  quarters  made 
darker  and  more  miserable  still  by  the  sight  of 
cheerless,  sick  and  dying  children  and  a  poor  moth- 
er borne  down  by  labor  and  care  ? 

Industrial  Education  for  the  people  is  no  theory. 
It  is  with  them  a  question  of  life  and  death.  It  is 
a  question  of  civilization.  It  is  a  national  question, 
and  touches  the  existence  of  the  state.  And  the 
rich  are  as  well  interested  in  it  as  the  poor,  as  the 
time  is  near  when  only  capital  turned  over  by  la- 
borers, skilled  through  the  knowledge  of  art  and 
science,  will  yield  a  return  to  its  owner. 


PART    IV. 


THE   PROGRESS   OF   CIVILIZATION. 

The  history  of  the  world  is  the  Education  of 
mankind,  and  every  step  in  the  onward  march  of 
civilization  is  full  of  lessons  and  suggestions  to  the 
educator  who  aims  at  the  preservation  and  im- 
provement of  the  race. 

Schoolmen  take  the  wit  and  wisdom  of  books 
for  civilization.  They  do  not  know  what  effort  it 
has  cost  humanity  to  develop  the  industrial  arts, 
which  have  made  life  possible  and  even  pleasure- 
able  in  a  world  that  harasses  man  at  every  step. 

Industry,  or  human  activity  applied  to  the  arts 
of  life,  has  changed  us,  and  is  changing  us  every 
day;  and  if  Education  is  to  become  a  civilizing 
power,  it  must  improve  and  advance  industry  to  a 
science  and  instrument  for  the  mental  and  moral 
improvement  of  the  people  who  are  ever  engaged 
in  it. 

Industry  is  the  mother  of  the  inductive  method 
of  reasoning  from  enlarged  experience,  and  of  the 
utilitarian  philosophy,  and  both  these,  her  daughters, 
are  fast  changing  the  life  and  mind  of  mankind. 

(J8S) 


1 86  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

It  is  a  maxim  recognized  and  acted  upon  by 
practical  statesmen,  that  general  progress  is  not 
influenced  by  abstruse  principles  or  reasonings, 
which  never  penetrate  the  masses.  Only  as  far  as 
science  mingles  with  the  trades  and  occupations 
of  the  people  does  it  become  the  property  of  the 
world  and  civilizes  the  age. 

The  decorations  of  a  building  are  not  the  build- 
ing, nor  are  they  as  important  as  the  foundation 
laid  solidly  deep  down  in  the  ground.  It  is  so 
with  literature  and  the  common  arts  of  life,  which 
sustain  life.  Civilization  existed  before  prophets, 
poets,  philosophers  and  statesmen  appeared. 

Long  and  laborious  was  the  way  industry  had  to 
travel  before  the  present  stage  was  reached. 

Not  only  civilization  as  a  whole  includes  many 
changes,  but,  as  Tylor  conclusively  shows,  there  is 
not  a  tool,  a  garment  or  any  other  object  of  art, 
but  it  is  the  survivor  of  a  thousand  changes  ;  and 
as  every  pebble  is  an  epitome  of  all  past  geological 
changes,  and  mirrors  the  cosmos  to  him  who  under- 
stands its  language,  even  so  it  is  with  every  object 
of  human  ingenuity,  as  each  is  a  volume  of  the 
world's  history,  stretching  back  from  this  our  Age 
of  Steel  to  that  of  Iron,  back  to  the  Age  of  Bronze, 
and  the  Flint  Age,  when  man  was  the  companion 
of  the  mammoth  and  the  woolly  rhinoceros. 
Yes,  the  whole  world  of  human  objects  is  a  library, 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  187 

and  nothing  in  it  is  so  trivial,  be  it  a  spade,  a  knife 
or  a  hatchet,  but  it  has  to  tell  wonders  of  the  thou- 
sand sires  that  preceded  it,  and  whose  history  is 
closely  interwoven  with  the  history  of  the  race. 

Pedants  see  civilization  exclusively  in  schools 
and  books  which  exist  but  since  yesterday,  while 
the  mechanic  arts  date  back  a  hundred  thousand 
years,  and  their  remains  are  found  to-day  buried 
under  thick  strata,  the  work  of  myriads  of  years 
and  in  company  with  a  fauna  that  shows  the  very 
skies  and  climate  as  well  as  the  earth  have  changed, 
and  are  no  more  what  they  have  been  when  the 
hands  of  men  have  formed  these  debris  of  another 
age  and  world.  Such  is  the  cycle  of  ages  that  was 
required  to  bring  the  mechanic  arts  to  their  present 
maturity. 

Well  says  Gibbon,  "  The  poet  or  philosopher  illus- 
trates his  age  and  country  by  the  efforts  of  a  single 
mind,  but  these  superior  powers  of  reason  or  fancy 
are  rare ;  many  may  be  qualified  to  spread  the 
benefits  of  government,  trade,  manufactures,  art 
and  science,  but  even  this  requires  the  union  of 
many,  which  may  come  to  naught ;  but  the  simple 
practice  of  the  mechanic  trades  strikes  an  everlast- 
ing root  into  the  most  unfavorable  soil ;  under  all 
changes  and  restrictions  these  inestimable  gifts 
have  been  diffused ;  they  have  been  successively 
propagated ;  they  can    never    be    lost.     We    may, 


1 88  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

therefore,  acquiesce  in  the  pleasing  conclusion,  that 
every  age  of  the  world  has  increased  and  still  in- 
creases the  real  wealth,  the  happiness,  the  knowl- 
edge, and,  perhaps,  the  virtue  of  the  human  race." 
Thus  with  the  practice  of  the  mechanic  trades  the 
progress  of  the  race  has  begun  and  continued 
through  unnumbered  ages,  and  through  them  alone 
what  has  been  acquired  in  the  long  struggle  will 
be  maintained  and  descend  to  new  races  and  civili- 
zations, when  all  else  will  be  lost  and  become  unin- 
telligible. 

Thousands  of  years  the  race  roamed  about  before 
it  stole  the  thunder  from  the  clouds — learned  how 
to  kindle  fire  and  how  to  keep  it  up.  The  Egyp- 
tians, the  Phcenicians,  the  Persians,  the  Greeks  and 
the  Chinese  have  all  preserved  the  tradition  of  the 
invention  of  this  art  by  their  ancestors,  and  to  this 
day  we  meet  with  tribes  who  miss  it. 

To  pluck  fruit  from  trees  was  the  first  method 
of  sustaining  life.  A  long  time  passed  before  man 
made  the  first  tool  or  instrument,  the  first  step  in 
his  civilization — the  arrow  and  the  bow — which 
made  the  chase  possible.  Only  as  men  multiplied, 
and  the  chase  fell  short  of  sustaining  life,  would 
men  consent  to  tend  flocks  of  sheep  and  herds  of 
cattle. 

When  man  succeeded  in  domesticating  animals 
and  throwing  the  burden  and  slavery  of  his  work 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  189 

upon  the  horse,  the  ox  and  the  ass,  a  great  stride 
was  made  in  the  civilization  of  the  race.  In  China 
and  India  but  until  a  very  recent  date  men  were 
used  instead  of  animals  for  transporting  goods  over 
roads ;  and  an  embassy  from  Holland  to  Peking 
required  the  service  of  a  thousand  men  to  carry 
the  baggage.  In  the  taking  of  Mexico  by  Ferdi- 
nand Cortez,  fifty  thousand  Indians  were  employed 
in  doing  what  five  hundred  horses  might  have 
accomplished. 

It  was  no  small  matter  when  man  discovered  the 
chestnut  and  the  like  preservable  fruits ;  and  the 
cereals,  as  rice,  wheat,  maize,  were  still  later  discov- 
eries, and  became  each  the  foundation  of  a  peculiar 
civilization  —  rice  in  Asia,  wheat  in  Europe  and 
maize  in  Peru  and  Mexico. 

Hunting,  fishing,  pastoral  life,  mining,  working 
of  metals  and  tool  making  had  all  to  precede  the 
plow,  without  which  the  proper  cultivation  of 
the  cereals  was  impossible.  It  certainly  is  hardly 
deserving  the  name  of  agriculture  when  plowing 
was  done  with  horns,  the  rib  bones  of  cows  were 
used  for  cutting  the  grain,  and  threshing  was  done 
by  driving  wagons,  or  rather  sleighs,  through  the 
grain,  or  the  wheat  was  gained  and  at  the  same 
time  prepared  for  eating  by  burning  the  straw. 

We  find  still,  tribes  not  only  preparing  the  ground 
for  receiving  the  seed  in  such  a  rough  way,  but 


190  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

wholly  ignorant  of  seeding.  The  plow  is  a  great 
stride  in  the  civilization  of  the  race  ;  for,  by  increas- 
ing food  and  making  man  sectire  against  hunger,  it 
gave  him  leisure  to  provide  for  his  higher  and 
nobler  wants. 

Bread,  the  first  necessity  of  life,  most  aptly  illus- 
trates the  slow  and  laborious  progress  of  the  arts 
of  civilization.  After  the  discovery  of  the  cereals, 
seeding,  and  cultivation  by  the  plow,  the  cereals 
were  for  long  ages  roasted  and  thus  eaten.  Next 
came  the  improvement  of  pounding  them,  and  not 
until  long  after,  were  they  ground  on  hand  mills, 
and  made  into  flat  and  brittle  cakes,  whence  the 
Scripture  expression  of  breaking  bread.  Bread, 
properly  speaking,  was  a  much  later  invention,  and 
wholesome  light  bread  raised  by  ferment,  belongs 
to  a  still  later  period. 

Let  none  think  that  these  first  steps  toward  pro- 
viding for  the  race  belong  to  the  fabulous  ages. 
Wheat  bread  was  in  England  but  a  very  few  hun- 
dred years  ago  a  luxury  indulged  in  by  the  higher 
classes  ;  fruit  and  vegetables  are  there  but  of  a  very 
late  date ;  and  even  the  consumption  of  fresh  meat 
was  restricted  to  the  fewest. 

Next  to  food  is  clothing.  Here  humanity  had 
to  learn  curing  or  tanning  of  skins,  spinning  and 
weaving  of  wool.  The  preparation  of  flax  cannot 
have  been  learned  but  slowly  and  is  due  to  woman's 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  191 

fine  observation  and  painstaking ;  and  language 
has  preserved  the  history  of  this  art  in  the  etymol- 
ogy of  wife,  which  means  Hterally  a  weaver.  How- 
inefficient  was  man  before  he  understood  the  work- 
ing of  metals  and  the  use  of  tools.  It  was  the 
plow  that  by  a  proper  cultivation  of  the  soil  turned 
nations  from  cannibalism. 

The  first  houses  were  caverns,  not  as*perfect  as 
the  dwellings  constructed  by  beavers.  Ages  passed 
before  the  cave  was  improved  by  a  hole  at  the  top 
for  the  smoke  to  escape. 

The  first  implements  of  war  were  clubs,  spears, 
darts  and  arrows,  and  the  latter  were  headed  with 
brass  as  early  as  the  siege  of  Troy.  The  battering 
ram  was  first  used  by  Pericles.  The  first  cannons 
were  made  of  iron  bars  held  together  in  the  shape 
of  a  concave  cylinder  by  rings  of  copper,  and  the 
first  cannon  balls  were  stone. 

The  first  vessels  were  beams  joined  together; 
next  trunks  of  trees  were  cut  hollow,  and  at  last 
planks  were  joined  in  the  shape  of  a  boat.  The 
ship  with  a  prow  and  a  stern  with  a  movable  helm 
and  sails  came  after  thousands  of  years. 

Burning  wood  was  anciently  the  only  method  for 
lighting  the  house ;  torches  came  next ;  and  even 
at  the  time  of  Homer  lamps  and  candles  were  un- 
known among  the  Greeks,  so  were  spoons  and  forks. 
Neither  had  their  houses  chimneys.     Locks  and 


192  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

keys  were  unknown,  and  bundles  were  secured  with 
ropes  intricately  combined  ;  and,  hence,  the  famous 
Gordian  knot.  Shoes  and  stockings  are  a  late  im- 
provement ;  so  are  shirts,  which  came  into  use  in 
the  last  days  of  Rome ;  and  in  modern  Europe 
shirts  were  not  common  before  the  eighth  century. 

Hardly  any  commerce  was  possible  before  the 
discovery  of  the  wheel,  the  wagon  and  the  ship, 
which  were  rendered  more  effective  by  steam  and 
the  compass. 

A  new  epoch  dawned  upon  mankind  with  the 
discovery  of  letters,  which,  again,  took  thousands 
of  years,  and  is  not  by  any  means  perfect  as  yet. 

The  Egyptians  used  hieroglyphics.  It  was  a  di- 
vine inspiration  that  first  permanently  fastened  on 
any  material  the  idea  of  gentleness  by  the  picture 
of  the  lamb ;  strength  by  the  picture  of  the  bull, 
or  magnanimity  by  that  of  the  lion.  The  Chinese 
use  to  this  day  sixty  thousand  arbitrary  signs  rep- 
resenting as  many  words,  the  greatest  scholar  can 
hardly  master  in  a  long  life,  a  method  that  much 
retarded  their  progress  and  made  them  stiff  and 
conservative.  Our  alphabet  is  the  evolution  of 
hieroglyphics  and  shows  the  outlines  in  its  letters  of 
the  things  from  which  they  are  derived.  The  repre- 
sentation of  the  simple  elements  of  sound  by  visi- 
ble signs  or  letters  was  a  wonderful  process  and  one 
that  had  to  pass  through  many  stages  ;  and  writing 


The  Progress  of  Civilization,  193 

was  most  probably  but  little  known  in  Greece  at 
the  time  of  Homer.  Charlemagne  could  not  sign 
his  name,  neither  could  many  of  the  bishops  at 
his  time.  Books  were  still  rare  at  the  time  of 
William  the  Conqueror.  The  Countess  of  Anjou 
gave  for  a  collection  of  homilies  two  hundred  sheep, 
a  quarter  of  wheat,  another  of  rye  and  a  third  of 
millet,  besides  a  number  of  marten  skins. 

To  encourage  the  art  of  reading  in  England, 
capital  punishment  for  murder  was  remitted  if  the 
criminal  could  read,  which  was  expressed  in  law  by 
the  phrase  of  "  benefit  of  clergy."  An  English  edi- 
tion of  six  hundred  copies  of  the  Bible,  when  first 
printed,  was  not  wholly  sold  in  three  years.  The 
Emperor  Rudolphus,  in  1281,  ordered  all  public 
acts  to  be  published  in  German  instead  of  Latin, 
as  formerly.  In  France  all  public  edicts  were  still 
published  in  Latin  in  1539,  and  in  Scotland  and 
other  European  countries  the  practice  continued 
to  the  last  century  to  the  damage  of  the  language 
of  the  land  and  the  common  people,  who  were 
thereby  kept  ignorant  of  the  public  law  and  cut 
off  from  all  contact  with  the  higher  classes,  who 
were  jabbering  hog  Latin  among  themselves. 

We  find  tribes  who  cannot  count  beyond  five. 

Our  decimal  system  has  early  been  learned  from 

our  digitals.     The  Peruvians  used  knots  of  various 

colors  to  designate   numbers.     Our   ciphers  were 

9 


194  J^^^^^  Progress  of  Civilization. 

invented  in  Hindoostanee  and  were  brought  to 
France  in  the  tenth  century  by  the  Arabs,  who  are 
also  the  inventors  of  algebra  or  the  science  of  solv- 
ing mathematical  problems  by  representing  num- 
bers by  the  common  letters  of  the  alphabet. 

Money  was  certainly  a  vast  improvement  upon 
barter.  Cattle  were  the  first  general  medium  of 
exchange,  as  they  could  be  driven  from  place  to 
place,  and  as  men  bought  their  wives,  a  virgin 
was,  for  instance,  held  worth  a  dozen  heads  of  cat- 
tle. The  Lydians  were  the  first  who  coined  gold 
and  silver  money  after  the  Trojan  war,  at  which 
barter  was  still  the  common  method  of  exchange. 

Money  is  one  of  the  mightiest  instruments  in  the 
rise  of  civilization,  as  it  encouraged  industry  by 
facilitating  commerce  through  a  universal  standard 
of  value  and  a  portable  and  preservable  instrument 
of  exchange,  which  could  be  used  as  an  equivalent 
for  the  greatest  as  well  as  for  the  smallest  values. 

It  set  man  free;  he  could  at  any  time  liquidate 
his  property  and  go  where  he  pleased  and  thus 
escape  tyranny,  but  it  made  man  also  greedy  for 
so  desirable  an  article,  rendered  him  more  selfish 
and  also  powerful  for  ill  as  well  as  for  good. 

The  useful  arts  lead  to  the  fine  arts  ;  and  sculp- 
ture, painting,  architecture,  and,  at  last,  gardening, 
rose  into  prominence  one  after  another  already  in 
antiquity. 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  195 

We  have  already  remarked  that  civilization  fol- 
lowed everywhere  the  introduction  of  the  cereals. 
The  Egyptians  and  the  Chaldeans  were  the  first 
cultivators  of  the  cereals  and  the  first  civilized  na- 
tions. The  civilization  of  Europe  dates  equally 
from  the  introduction  of  the  cereals,  iron  and  the 
plow. 

How  much  has  common  industry  done  for  hu- 
manity by  the  cultivation  or  introduction  of  the 
cereals,  the  plow,  iron,  steel,  the  loom,  steam  and 
machinery,  each  of  which  marks  a  new  epoch  of 
civilization. 

Little  has  the  school  achieved  hitherto  in  com- 
parison with  this,  neither  will  it  in  the  future,  ex- 
cept it  makes  its  object  the  improvement  of  indus- 
try and  effects  thereby  civilization. 

Without  iron,  man  is  impotent,  for  he  is  then 
without  tools.  A  hatchet,  a  knife,  or  even  a  nail, 
will  buy  almost  anything  among  tribes  who  have 
not  the  use  of  iron,  as  they  feel  their  power  infi- 
nitely increased  by  it.  Copper,  brass  and  the  pre- 
cious metals  have  all  been  earlier  discovered  and 
used  on  account  of  their  brightness  and  state  of 
purity  in  which  they  are  often  found  on  the  very 
surface  of  the  earth,  and  as  they  are  softer  and 
easier  worked.  It  is  all  otherwise  with  iron.  At 
the  time  of  Homer  iron  was  still  thought  precious 
enough  to  rank  with  gold   and  silver  as  the  price 


196  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

of  the  conqueror.  Every  step  in  the  improvement 
of  the  working  of  iron  and  the  manufacture  of  steel 
is  an  improvement  in  civilization  affecting  human- 
ity far  more  than  the  smoothest  rhymes  or  the 
most  acute  system  of  metaphysics. 

Herodotus  mentions  Glaucus  of  Chios  as  the 
first  who  smelted  iron.  It  was  not  before  the  Mid- 
dle Ages  that  iron  entirely  took  the  place  of  brass. 
Think  for  a  moment  we  lost  the  use  of  iron ; 
without  a  plow  or  a  tool  we  should  soon  sink  into 
utter  barbarity ;  and  but  few  could  maintain  them- 
selves even  in  that  condition,  but  would  perish. 

Erasmus  describes  England  at  the  time  of  Henry 
VHI.  as  a  land  of  filth,  every  room  full  of  "  grease, 
fragments,  bones,  spittle,  excrements  of  dogs  and 
cats  and  everything  that  is  nauseous."  Madrid 
had  not  a  privy  as  late  as  1760,  and  the  royal  man- 
date to  build  such  raised  a  storm  of  opposition. 
Iron  brought  the  age  of  industry,  which  cast  men 
into  a  new  mould,  and  made  of  the  English  a  people 
loving  cleanliness. 

In  1563  knives  were  first  made  in  England. 
Pocket  watches  were  brought  from  Germany  1577. 
In  1580  coaches  were  introduced.  A  saw  mill  was 
erected  near  London  1633.  Coffee  houses  were 
opened  1652.  Steam  flouring  mills  began  as  hand 
mills,  horse  mills,  water  mills,  and,  finally,  became 
what   they  arc   to-day.     Striking   clocks  were   not 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  197 

known  until  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and, 
hence,  the  custom  of  watchmen  calHng  the  hours 
of  the  night.  Paper  was  first  made  in  the  four- 
teenth century.  The  eggs  of  the  silk-worms  were 
first  introduced  in  Europe  under  the  reign  of  Jus- 
tinian from  Hindoostanee. 

With  the'  progress  of  industry,  food,  clothing 
and  all  other  means  of  comfort  and  luxury  so  in- 
creased, that  the  poorest  man  to-day  has  a  greater 
quantity  of  them  than  fell  to  the  share  of  kings  or 
nobles  but  a  few  hundred  years  ago. 

Queen  Catharine  could  not  command  a  salad  for 
dinner  until  the  king  brought  a  gardener  from  the 
Netherlands.  About  the  same  time  the  artichoke, 
the  apricot  and  the  damask  rose  made  their  first 
appearance  in  England.  Turkeys,  carps  and  hops 
were  first  known  there  in  the  year  1524.  The  cur- 
rant shrub  was  brought  from  the  islands  of  Zante 
1533.  In  the  year  1540  cherry  trees  were  brought 
from  Flanders  to  Kent. 

At  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  there  were  but  few 
chimneys  even  in  the  capital  towns  of  England,  and 
the  smoke  issued  at  a  hole  in  the  ceiling,  the  door 
and  windows ;  utensils,  forks,  spoons,  etc.,  were  of 
wood.  The  people  slept  on  straw  with  a  log  of 
wood  for  a  pillow. 

Henry  II.,  of  France,  at  the  marriage  of  the 
dutchess  of  Savoy,  used  the  first  silk  stockings  that 


198  TJic  Progress  of  Civilisation. 

were  made  in  France.  Elizabeth,  the  great  queen 
of  England,  had  her  reception  room  strewn  with 
rushes  or  straw — as  in  our  days  half  decent  stables 
are  ;  she  received  in  the  third  year  of  her  reign  a 
present  of  a  pair  of  black  silk  stockings.  The  first 
stone  bridge  over  the  Thames  was  built  in  12 13, 
and  over  the  Seine  in  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  The  first  silk  factory  was  built  in 
Lyons  in  1536.  Glass  windows  were  still  rare  in 
private  houses  in  the  twelfth  century.  King  Ed- 
ward III.  invited  three  clockmakers  from  Holland. 

Gunpowder,  firearms  and  artillery,  with  the  new 
art  of  war,  called  forth  standing  armies,  while  the 
rest  of  the  people  remained  at  home  and  devoted 
themselves  to  the  trades,  which  gained  thereby  such 
importance  that  they  ruled  the  state  and  pretty 
much  ended  the  old  r6gime,  which  was  one  of  con- 
stant war,  and,  therefore,  barbarous. 

The  Saracens  have  spread  a  taste  for  chemical 
manipulation  and  the  observation  of  nature  and 
mechanical  improvements.  Roger  Bacon  has  trod 
into  this  path,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  great 
Bacon  of  Verulam. 

Men  have  never  paid  attention  enough  to  the 
importance  of  the  industrial  arts.  Glass  was  intro- 
duced into  Britain  671  ;  still  it  was  not  applied 
there  for  windows  until  the  thirteenth  century,  was 
but   in   the  sixteenth  century  manufactured   there 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  199 

and  did  not  enter  into  general  use  until  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  Country  houses  in 
Scotland  were  not  glazed  until  1661.  The  manu- 
facture of  silk  was  more  than  a  thousand  years 
traveling  from  the  shores  of  the  Bosphorus  to 
England. 

Henry  the  Great,  king  of  France,  and  his  distin- 
guished minister,  the  able  Sully,  have  laid  the 
foundation  to  France's  eminence  in  the  manufac- 
turing arts.  Under  the  great  Colbert,  the  minister 
of  Louis  XIV.,  the  since  famous  manufactory  of 
Sevres  china  was  established,  the  manufacture  of 
glass  brought  from  Venice,  wall  paper  invented  in 
France,  the  manufacture  of  fine  cloth  introduced 
from  England;  until,  in  1685,  the  revocation  of  the 
edict  of  Nantes  had  driven  away  the  Huguenots, 
the  best  artisans  of  France,  with  whom  a  great  part 
of  the  manufacture  and  civilization  of  France  have 
wandered  to  England,  Germany,  the  United  States 
and  other  countries. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  all  arts  were  debased  through 
the  spirit  of  feudalism,  and  all  labor  was  considered 
slavish.  Hence  the  slow  progress  in  manufactures 
and  civilization.  All  articles  of  furniture  were  rare, 
the  same  room  was  used  for  cooking  and  eating, 
and  the  ox  often  lived  under  the  same  roof  with 
the  farmer.  Lords,  even  at  the  time  of  Elizabeth, 
would,  like  other  movable  furniture,  take  with  them 


2CX)  The  Progress  of  Civilization, 

the  windows  of  their  castle  on  leaving  for  London 
and  the  court.    Forks  were  unknown  until  James  I. 

Barley  bread  was  the  usual  food  of  the  poorer 
classes  in  1626.  In  some  portions  of  England,  as 
late  as  1725,  even  a  rich  family  used  but  a  peck  of 
wheat  in  a  year,  and  that  about  Christmas.  Dry 
bran  bread,  mixed  with  rye  meal,  was  commonly 
used  by  servants  and  laborers.  Corn  was  mostly 
ground  at  home  by  the  hand  mill,  even  at  the  time 
of  Elizabeth.  Holland  provided  London  with  vege- 
tables, and  at  the  time  of  Henry  VHL  not  a  cab- 
bage, carrot,  turnip  or  other  edible  root  grew  in  all 
England.  Natural  enough,  in  proportion  to  the 
want  of  industry,  barbarism  and  crime  abounded, 
and  70,000  thieves  were  hanged  under  this  prince 
in  England. 

Spectacles  were  introduced  in  the  thirteenth 
century ;  needles  were  brought  from  France  to 
England  in  1543,  and  first  made  there  in  1626. 
Umbrellas  made  their  appearance  in  England  in 
1768,  and  their  first  use  excited  the  jeers  of  the 
vulgar.  The  land  was  one  waste  and  the  mines 
poorly  explored. 

Take  the  quantity  of  iron  smelted  in  the  Middle 
Ages.  It  amounted  to  fifteen  pounds  at  most,  per 
hand.  Using  coke  instead  of  charcoal  in  making 
iron,  a  furnace  produces  in  our  time  thirty  tons  a 
day,  or  four  hundred  pounds  of  a  superior  quality 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  201 

per  hand.     A  man  accomplishes,  therefore,  thirty 
times  as  much  as  before. 

When  grinding  flour  was  done  by  hand  mills  it 
took  one  grinder  for  twenty-five  consumers.  In 
our  improved  flouring  mills  one  man  turns  out  flour 
enough  for  3,600,  so  that  one  man  does  the  work 
of  one  hundred  and  forty-four  formerly  employed. 
Fourteen  large  mills,  employing  two  hundred  and 
seventy-eight  hands,  do  to-day  the  miUing  of  a 
city  of  a  million  population.  In  Rome  and  Athens 
the  hand  mills  kept  going  40,000  hands  for  an 
equal  population. 

In  the  manufacture  of  cotton  one  man  does  to- 
day what  seven  hundred  could  do  before  recent 
improvements  were  made.  John  Kay,  of  Bolton, 
introduced  the  fly  shuttle  in  1750,  so  that  one  hand 
can  attend  from  ten  to  twenty  shuttles.  Mr.  Har- 
greaves,  of  Blackburn,  first  introduced  the  spinning 
jenny  in  1770.  Mr.  Arkwright  built  his  machinery 
for  carding  and  roving  in  177 1,  and  Mr.  Crompton's 
mule  was  introduced  in  1780;  and  about  the  begin- 
ning of  the  century  Mr.  Watts'  steam  engine  came 
into  use,  the  power  loom  began  its  work,  and  from 
that  day  the  modern  factory  system  dates.  About 
the  middle  of  this  century  250,000  power  looms 
were  in  operation. 

The  muslin  exported  from  England  in  1833  meas- 
ured ten  times  the  circumference  of  the  globe.     In 


202  T)ie  Progress  of  Civilization. 

1840  it  was  equal  to  thirty-five  times  the  same 
length,  or  one  milliard  and  three  hundred  and 
eighty-three  millions  of  metres,  and  the  whole  ex- 
port of  cotton  manufactures  amounted  to  one  hun- 
hundred  and  sixty-three  millions  of  dollars.  The 
cheapness  has  increased  with  the  supply,  so  that  it 
was  in  1853  five  times  as  cheap  as  twenty-five  years 
back,  and  twelve  times  as  cheap  as  fifty  years  back. 

In  1740  England  produced  I7,0(X)  tons  of  iron, 
in  1840,  1,500,000  tons,  and  in  1856,  3,000,000  tons. 

But  in  transporting  power  we  have  gained  per- 
haps most.  One  man  with  an  efficient  locomotive 
can  carry  500  tons  of  freight.  It  would  take  50,000 
men  to  do  the  same  carrying  in  the  same  time. 
All  this  was  accomplished  by  the  hard  struggle 
and  ingenuity  of  industry,  hardly  aided  by  the 
school. 

Let  the  reader  notice  that  we  traced  the  progress 
of  the  arts  before  an  earnest  attempt  of  introducing 
universal  Education  was  made.  Solely  by  the  nat- 
ural force  of  circumstances,  by  a  continually  spread- 
ing division  of  labor,  and  the  devotion  of  the  whole 
attention  of  the  laborer  to  but  a  small  field  of  labor, 
skill  and  invention  have  made  rapid  progress,  com- 
forts have  been  increased,  taste  has  been  improved, 
and  leisure  has  been  gained,  which  has  called  forth 
the  literature  of  the  day,  of  which  the  arts  and 
trades  are  the  cause  and  not  the  effect. 


TJie  Progress  of  Civilization.  203 

Slavery  in  all  degrees  gave  way  in  England  in 
135 1  to  the  arbitrary  power  and  stipulations  of 
legislation,  which  settled  the  price  of  labor.  And 
the  trades  were  so  backward  that  four-fifths  of  the 
people  were  agriculturists,  and  yet,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  land  was  a  waste. 

The  discomfort  of  the  people  may  be  seen  from 
the  fact  that  from  the  year  1075  to  1575  the  popu- 
lation of  England  and  Wales  has  but  doubled. 
From  1600  to  1700,  the  increase  was  about  30  per 
cent.  ;  from  1700  to  1750,  the  increase  was  25  per 
cent.,  and  in  1800  to  1850,  the  population  of  the 
United  Kingdom  doubled,  besides  furnishing  a 
constant  stream  of  emigration  for  this  and  other 
parts  of  the  world. 

Commerce  had  anxiously  explored  the  sea  to 
find  a  new  way  to  the  East  Indies  ;  and  the  mari- 
time discoveries  which  were  constantly  making, 
kept  the  world  agitated  and  enterprising. 

The  first  attempt  of  manufacturing  in  the  United 
States  was  made  in  1608,  only  one  year  after  the 
first  effective  English  settlement  at  Jamestown,  in 
Virginia.  So  early  has  the  spirit  of  industry  devel- 
oped in  this  country. 

In  1776  the  first  attempts  of  raising  cotton  in 
the  South  were  made,  and  the  cotton  of  1790,  1791 
and  1792  together,  made  one  moderate  cargo.  At 
the  end  of  half  a  century  the  cotton  crop  amounted 


204  ^/'^  Progress  of  Civilization. 

to  two  millions  of  bales ;  and  to-day  it  reaches  the 
figure  of  four  and  five  millions. 

In  1812  the  iirst  glass  works  were  erected  in 
Pittsburg.  The  first  iron  works  were  built  in  the 
United  States  in  Pennsylvania,  in  Newcastle 
county,  in  1726.  In  1805  the  population  of  the 
United  States  was  6,180,000;  its  manufactures 
amounted  to  $30,000,000,  and  its  agricultural  pro- 
ductions to  $85,000,000.  In  1870  the  population 
of  the  United  States  amounted  to  38,558,371,  and 
there  were  counted  252,148  factories,  with  40,191 
steam  engines  and  51,018  water  wheels,  with  a 
total  of  2,346,142  horse  power,  and  2,053,996  hands, 
yielding  a  net  product  of  $1,743,898,200,  or,  in- 
cluding the  raw  material,  $4,232,325,442. 

These  sums  are  too  large  to  realize  their  amounts. 
We  will,  therefore,  take  some  of  the  great  indus- 
tries separately : 

Iron  industries $346,952,694 

Cotton  goods 177,903,687 

Woolen  goods 178,064,453 

Boots  and  shoes 181,644,090 

Clothier  goods 147,650,378 

Leather 137,480,097 

Furniture 57.926,547 

Mining  products 152,598.994 

The  agricultural  productions  of  every  sort 
amounted    in    1870   to  $2,447,538,658. 

The  United  States  had  in  1873,  70,178  miles  of 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  205 

railroad,  at  a  cost  of  $3,436,638,749  for  carr>'ing  on 
its  internal  trade. 

The  foreign  trade  of  the  world  amounts  to  $10,- 
(X>o,ooo,ooo  per  annum,  and  is  carried  on  in  200,- 
000  vessels  plowing  the  ocean  with  a  cargo  of 
20,000,000  tons. 

Of  2,500,000  tons  of  sugar — the  yearly  consump- 
tion of  the  world  —  the  United  States  consume 
500,000  tons. 

How  slow,  uncertain  and  laborious  was  the  prog- 
ress of  industry,  feeling,  as  it  were,  her  way  in  the 
dark  for  thousands  of  years,  and  how  glorious  and 
rapid  was  her  march  since  she  has  caught  sight  of 
the  rising  sun  of  science  !  Let  science,  then,  fully 
join  her,  and  the  effect  on  her  as  well  as  on  her 
children  will  be  immense,  and  a  new  era  will  rise 
for  humanity. 

But  industrial  progress  does  not  merely  mean  so 
many  bales  of  cotton  and  so  many  tons  of  iron  or 
coal  ;  it  means  the  progress  in  the  condition  of  the 
slave,  serf  or  villain,  and  the  free  laborer  ;  it  means 
the  moral  progress  of  the  chieftain  or  successful 
bandit  to  the  privilege  of  birth  ;  and,  at  last,  to 
personal  capacity  and  useful  enterprise.  With  the 
increase  of  production  the  laborer  gained  in  personal 
and  political  influence  as  well  as  in  a  material  view. 
As  slaves,  laborers  were  crowded  together  without 
leference  to  health  or  decency  ;   as  free  mechanics 


2o6  The  Progress  of  Cii  i'hafum. 

and  small  masters  they  occupied  .^mall  properties ; 
they  became  possessed  of  all  the  virtues  and  ad- 
vantages attaching  to  property  and  well-regulated 
homes. 

But,  alas !  the  great  industries  under  the  regime 
of  steam  and  machinery  have  centralized  capital 
and  population  ;  and,  again,  laborers  are  crowded 
in  tenements  without  regard  to  health  and  decency, 
ending  in  the  formation  of  a  permanent  low,  short- 
lived, stinted  type  of  degraded  humanity. 

We  cannot  separate  from  our  present  form  of 
industry  the  sanitary  and  moral  relations  of  the 
people ;  they  are  all  eminently  questions  of 
civilization,  and  find  their  solution  in  Education. 
Associate  industry  at  all  points  with  Education, 
and  mind  will  control  mattpr,  and  reason  will  bring 
order  into  the  present  social  chaos. 

The  Education  of  the  industrial  masses  into 
thinking  men  once  achieved,  further  steps  will  best 
suggest  themselves  to  the  men  most  concerned,  and 
who  are  the  best  judges  of  their  condition,  wants 
and  means  of  relief. 

But  this  Education  must  embrace  the  industrial, 
economical,  domestic  and  social  relations,  and  in- 
crease their  efficiency  as  producers,  their  intelli- 
gence, their  moral  power,  their  health  and  their 
social  consideration.  Our  all-absorbing  great  in- 
dustries  can    find    their   only  justification    in    the 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  207 

union  with  art  and  science  and  in  the  spread  of 
taste,  sensibility,  fine  feeHng,  knowledge,  wisdom 
and  well-being  among  the  masses  engaged  in  them. 
Industries  which  had  no  other  end  than  the  pro- 
duction of  a  million  of  trifles  to  satisfy  the  vanity 
of  their  consumers,  and  left  their  producers  unim- 
proved and  miserable,  would  be  a  most  degrading 
materialism,  which  could  only  end  in  universal 
brutalization  and  in  the  downfall  of  the  nation. 

Every  field  and  every  factory  throughout  the  land 
and  the  wide  world  is  a  laboratory,  and  ever}^  laborer 
producing  profitable  results  is  an  experimentalist. 

Where  the  hand  and  the  brain  work  in  unison 
and  shape  nature's  elements  into  angels  minister- 
ing to  the  well-being  of  man,  most  is  effected  for 
human  civilization. 

Schools,  hardly  organized  for  half  a  century,  have 
as  yet  done  little  for  industry,  which  has  progressed 
by  its  own  unaided  exertions,  until  its  advance  has 
aroused  practical  men  to  found  polytechnic  insti- 
tutes and  industrial  schools,  which  promise  to  lead 
industry  to  still  higher  development. 

The  unaided  success  of  the  industries  is  plainly 
to  be  read  in  the  greatness  of  the  Italian  republics, 
the  Hansas,  Flanders  and  in  France  prior  to  the 
persecution  of  the  Huguenots;  or  in  England  in 
our  own  day,  where  Education  has  been  organized 
but  of  very  late. 


2o8  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

We  do  not  deny  the  importance  of  the  school  ; 
but  to  advance  civilization,  it  must  prepare  the 
people  for  their  work — nice  essays  are  for  the  phi- 
losopher. The  nature  of  the  civilization  of  an 
epoch  is  determined  by  the  character  of  the  peo- 
ple, which,  again,  depends  on  the  work  they  are 
engaged  in  and  on  the  manner  in  which  they  per- 
form it.  The  tens  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
fabricates  they  manufacture  are  their  volumes ; 
and,  hence,  the  more  intelligence  and  science  is 
brought  to  bear  upon  them  by  an  industrial  and 
technical  Education,  the  more  the  people  will  think 
and  improve,  and  the  higher  a  civilization  will  be 
attained.  Industry  has  advanced  to  a  science,  and 
its  theory  must  be  taught  as  well  as  its  practice,  if 
it  is  to  progress  with  the  rapidity  peculiar  to  all  the 
movements  of  the  age  we  live  in.  All  the  ap- 
pliances of  human  ingenuity  are  to  be  set  in  mo- 
tion to  increase  the  quality  as  well  as  the  quantity 
of  our  manufactures,  to  make  the  workmen  con- 
sumers as  well  as  producers,  and  to  restore  har- 
mony between  labor  and  capital. 

With  every  new  step  industry  increased  the  hap- 
piness of  mankind,  and  made  us  wiser  and  better 
in  proportion  as  the  common  wants  were  satisfied 
and  the  higher  ones  awakened  and  cared  for. 

How  vast  are  the  numbers  engaged  in  the  in- 
dustries of  the  world  and  how  great  is  the  capital 


The  Progress  of  Civilization,  209 

—  the  whole  earnings  of  the  past  —  engaged  in 
them.  Can  Education  do  anything  worthier  and 
more  fruitful  of  precious  results  than  by  improj/ing 
the  industries,  improve  the  great  majority  of  man- 
kind engaged  in  them,  and  by  doubling  the  wages 
of  labor  and  the  profits  of  capital,  and  satisfying 
all,  fill  all  with  peace  and  concord,  wiping  out  the 
sorrow  and  woe  attending  the  present  state  of 
want,  madness  and  crime  ? 

In  very  deed  science  owes  all  to  industry,  and  it 
is  time  it  serve  in  its  turn  industry,  that  it  may  the 
surer  serve  humanity  and  the  moral  progress  of  the 
race. 

The  beautiful  arts  of  architecture,  sculpture  and 
painting,  clocks,  spectacles,  telescopes,  air  pumps, 
chemical  manipulations  and  printing,  were  all  de- 
veloped before  universal  Education  was  intro- 
duced, and  are  all  the  results  of  the  progress  of 
the  industrial  arts,  which  furnished  the  tools  and 
often  the  entire  mechanism  and  the  very  observa- 
tions which  led  to  the  principles  some  claim  for  the 
school. 

When  we  consider  the  innumerable  host  of  tech- 
nical arts  and  trades  furnishing  the  necessities,  com- 
forts and  pleasures  of  life,  providing  science  with 
her  tools  and  developing  the  taste,  mind  and  mor- 
als of  the  great  mass  of  mankind  engaged  in  them, 
the  infinite  observations,  facts  and  combinations  of 


2IO  TJie  Progress  of  Civilization. 

ideas  stored  up  in  them  as  displayed  in  the  great 
industrial  exhibitions  of  the  world,  and  especially 
in  the  magnificent  one  we  have  just  witnessed  in 
our  own  country,  what  an  infinite  world  of  mental 
activity  they  present  to  us. 

And  right  here,  speaking  of  the  indebtedness  of 
the  world  to  past  labors,  we  will  express  our  obli- 
gations to  scores  of  laborers  who  have  preceded  us 
in  our  field  of  inquiry,  and  especially  would  we 
mention  the  noble  author  of  the  "  Sketches  of 
Man,"  upon  whose  resources  we  have  freely  drawn. 
Little  can  man  in  his  few  days  see  with  his  own 
eyes ;  past  labors  are  the  genuine  source  of  inspi- 
ration, and  their  honest  recognition  is  the  most  be- 
fitting invocation. 

In  almost  every  trade  qualities  and  relations  hid- 
den from  the  superficial  observer,  are  made  the 
basis  of  operations  and  applications.  How  mighty 
small  is  the  sum  of  our  little  school  learning  com- 
pared with  the  thought  and  experience  i  treasured 
up  in  a  thousand  skilful  trades,  each  of  which  man- 
ufactures often  a  hundred  different  articles.  The 
most  complicated  technical  arts  require  as  much 
mental  force  as  any  of  the  branches  of  school 
learning,  which  were  only  injured  by  metaphysical 
subtlety. 

Bishop  Heretius  remarked  that  all  the  learning 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  211 

down  to  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century 
could  be  put  into  six  to  ten  moderate  folios,  to 
which  we  may  add  ten  or  even  twenty  volumes 
for  our  late  scientific  acquisitions.  What  a  library, 
on  the  other  hand,  would  it  form,  if  every  observa- 
tion and  every  manipulation  in  every  trade  and  art 
was  written  down  !  And,  yet,  these  practical  ob- 
servations are  unquestionably  founded  in  truth,  and 
useful  much  more  than  most  of  the  learned  trash 
of  the  schools. 

Industry,  more  than  science,  has  worked  in  the 
past  under  the  guidance  of  practical  observation — 
the  main  instrument  of  genius  and  the  source  of 
all  invention — until  Bacon  has  got  his  philosophy 
from  the  shop,  which  has  done  the  world  more 
good  than  the  philosophy  which  Socrates  has 
brought  down  from  heaven. 

The  knowledge  of  the  schools  or  abstract  philoso- 
phy has  done  infinite  mischief,  by  fostering  relig- 
ious prejudices  and  false  political  theories  sustain- 
ing despotisms,  false  moral  systems  and  standards  ; 
in  short,  it  has  caused  much  physical,  moral, 
political  and  religious  mischief,  while  technical  in- 
ventions have  saved  and  preserved  mankind  from 
much  physical  harm  and  have  assisted  in  the  moral 
and  intellectual  culture  of  the  race. 

The  technical    pursuits,   by  cultivating  physical 


212  The  Progress  of  Civilisation. 

and  mental  activity,  developed  the  body  and  mind 
of  the  people,  and  thus  materially  increased  their 
health,  efficiency  and  well-being. 

Industrial  progress  is  continuous  in  its  develop- 
ment ;  theoretical  knowledge  and  literary  culture 
are  often  inactive  and  dead  for  ages. 

The  labor  of  the  world  may  be  historically  di- 
vided into  the  following  epochs  :  The  time  of  the 
first  rude  labors ;  the  trades,  with  division  of 
labor ;  industry,  combined  with  science  and  art,  or 
ornamental  industry ;  and,  at  last,  the  highest 
technic,  or  union  of  strength  and  beauty.  In  the 
first  days  of  the  race,  the  same  man  was  hunter, 
fisher,  smith,  carpenter,  cabinet  maker,  tailor,  etc. 
This  sharpened  his  wits  ;  but,  of  course,  he  brought 
it  to  perfection  in  nothing.  However,  as  every- 
body was  his  own  customer,  he  was  easily  suited. 

As  mankind  increased  and  formed  towns,  each 
man  was  able  to  dispose  of  his  surplus,  he  devoted 
himself,  therefore,  to  one  trade,  produced  a  great 
quantity  of  articles  of  better  quality,  and  got  in  ex- 
change for  his  fabric  a  greater  number  of  articles  of 
higher  quality  than  he  could  have  made  himself. 

This  division  of  labor  led  to  almost  scientific 
exactness  and  perfection  in  the  trades.  Competi- 
tion among  the  producers  led  to  ornamental  in- 
dustry. 

At  last,  use,  beauty  and  strength,  with  the  great- 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  213 

est  possible  productivity  and  cheapness  in  articles 
of  manufacture,  were  aimed  at ;  and  what  formerly- 
seemed  to  be  the  work  of  individual  skill,  is  now 
performed  by  a  mechanism  which  replaces  the  dex- 
terity and  intelligence  of  the  laborer. 

In  Greece  as  well  as  in  Rome  the  trades  were 
despised  as  fit  only  for  slaves.  In  the  world  of 
to-day  they  are  the  very  beginning  of  freedom, 
universal  liberty  and  civilization. 

It  is  the  tradesmen  who  formed  in  the  Middle 
Ages  fortified  towns  and  founded  modern  liberty, 
maintaining  their  rights  against  a  fierce  nobility 
and  often  against  kings. 

The  Florentine  republics,  the  Hansa  League  and 
Flanders  have  achieved  wealth  and  liberty,  not  by 
their  arms,  but  by  their  industry  ;  and  to-day,  the 
greatest  of  all  modern  states,  as  Germany,  France, 
England  and  the  United  States,  are  founded  upon 
industry,  as  the  ancient  states  developed  their 
strength  in  war. 

How  productive  of  great  and  noble  qualities  is 
industry  by  the  independence  it  procures  and  the 
opportunities  it  gives  us  for  developing  our  talents. 
Wealth  develops  power  and  dignity  and  health  and 
well-being  among  the  masses. 

The  industrial  laborer  is  the  soldier  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  making  daily  more  conquests  foi 
civilization  and  humanity. 


214  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

Industn-  creates  commerce  and  new  sources  of 
maintenance,  lessens  idleness  and  vice,  and  im- 
proves morals  by  employing  men.  It  was  the  want 
of  industry  that  made  the  people  of  Rome  and 
Greece  accessible  to  the  tricks  of  the  demagogue 
and  rendered  them  turbulent. 

To  the  rise  of  the  industrial  classes  and  the  con- 
sequent development  of  wealth,  Europe  owes  its 
liberty  and  civilization,  as  the  third  estate,  grown 
powerful,  forced  royalty  and  nobles  as  well  as  the 
clergy  to  respect  the  rights  of  the  people. 

Industry,  through  commerce  following  in  its 
wake,  gives  rise  to  intercourse  among  men  and 
nations,  to  interchange  of  ideas,  mutual  liberality, 
and  peace  and  good-will  among  men.  Commerce, 
which  rests  upon  industry,  is  one  of  the  main 
sources  of  modern  civilization.  Industry  consti- 
tutes our  superiority  over  the  ancients. 

Slavery  and  contempt  of  labor  form  the  centre 
of  the  civilization  of  the  ancients  and  of  the  mili- 
tary life  in  which  their  activity  found  the  only  outlet. 
Among  the  Boeotians,  men  who  defiled  themselves 
by  commerce,  were  for  ten  years  excluded  from  all 
state  offices  ;  and  Augustus  condemned  a  senator 
to  death  because  he  took  part  in  manufacture. 

The  slave  system  engendered  ferocity.  Slaves 
had  to  imbrue  their  hands  in  each  other's  blood  as 
gladiators,  and   to  engage   in  deadly  combat  with 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  215 

bfutes  almost  as  ferocious  as  their  masters.  They 
were  often  mutilated  with  atrocious  cruelty  ;  they 
were  tortured  on  the  slightest  suspicion  and  cruci- 
fied for  trifling  offenses.  If  a  master  was  murdered, 
all  the  slaves  were  put  to  torture;  and  if  the  per- 
petrator was  not  discovered,  they  were  all  put  to 
death.  Tacitus  relates  a  case  in  which  not  less 
than  four  hundred  were  thus  slaughtered.  Ladies 
of  fashion  amused  themselves  by  the  repeated  in- 
fliction of  painful  flesh  wounds  on  their  lady  maids 
with  their  own  hand  and  dagger,  and  by  ordering 
others  to  be  crucified.  Old  and  infirm  slaves  were 
exposed  on  an  island  of  the  Tiber,  where  they  were 
left  to  die  from  starvation. 

As  a  man's  children  could  not  be  considered  less 
his  own  than  his  slaves,  and  his  wife  is  but  part  of 
his  household,  he  had  also  over  them  the  power  of 
life  and  death  ;  and  as  a  man  is  not  likely  to  be 
more  tender  with  strangers  than  with  his  own  wife 
and  children,  savage  barbarism  characterized  all  the 
relations  of  man  with  his  fellows.  Such  was  an- 
tiquity and  such  the  models  classical  Education 
would  force  upon  modern  civilization. 

Industry,  or  application  to  the  arts  and  trades, 
led  to  the  development  of  the  spirit  of  observation 
and  to  facts ;  it  led  away  from  dreams,  sophistry 
and  dogmatism  to  genuine  enlightenment  and  rea- 
sonableness ;  it  led  to  the  discovery  of  the  inductive 


2i6  T]ie  Progress  of  Civilization. 

philosophy,  or,  rather,  dcchired  working  the  only 
true  philosophy  and  the  shop  the  best  school,  and 
thus  laid  the  foundation  to  genuine  progress  and 
improvement. 

It  led  to  the  development  of  the  principle  of  util- 
ity, which  is  the  safest  test  of  truth  and  goodness. 
It  led  to  peace  and  good-will  among  all  men,  as 
they  all  work  for  each  other  and  exchange  with 
each  other  the  products  of  their  labor. 

Industry  cultivates  enterprise  and  caution,  two 
qualities  Hume  calls  the  most  important  for  suc- 
cess in  life. 

Industry,  says  Buckle,  makes  us  conscious  of  our 
power.  It  is  averse  to  superstition,  as  we  daily 
feel  that  all  depends  on  our  own  resources  and  how 
we  manage  them.  It  is  the  mother  of  wealth,  and, 
hence,  of  civilization,  and  seeking  for  markets  it 
leads  to  maritime  discoveries.  Industry  gives  men 
with  competency  and  independence  dignity  and 
respectability,  and  thus  cultivates  a  higher  regard 
for  humanity. 

Industry,  assuming  the  character  of  art,  develops 
the  taste  for  the  beautiful,  and,  hence,  the  cultiva- 
tion of  industry  and  art  leads  to  virtue  and  good 
manners,  as  the  good  and  the  beautiful  are  akin. 

Industry  strengthens  the  physical  and  mental 
capacities  of  man  by  constant  exercise ;  increases 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  217 

his  self-restraining  power,  the  basis  of  moral  excel- 
lency, and  thus  renders  man  better  and  nobler. 

Industry,  says  Leckey,  by  providing  the  world 
with  refining  comforts,  undermined  the  asceticism 
of  the  Church,  its  monastic  spirit  and  ecclesiastic 
power ;  it  secularized  Europe  and  made  it  tolerant. 

Industry  led  from  dreamy  philosophy  and  meta- 
physical speculation  and  dogmatic  theology  to  the 
cultivation  of  science  and  the  formation  of  a  prac- 
tical code  of  natural  ethics  for  the  regulation  of 
man  in  his  intercourse  with  his  fellow,  nature  or 
with  himself. 

All  the  gold  in  the  world  flowing  into  a  state 
cannot  save  it  if  indlistry  leaves  it ;  witness  Spain. 

The  main  idea  of  Adam  Smith's  "  Wealth  of 
Nations  "  is  industry,  which  all  his  measures  tend 
to  promote  as  the  pillar  of  a  nation's  greatness. 
Labor,  according  to  him,  is  the  basis  of  value. 
Adam  Smith  employed  his  whole  genius  to  show 
that  industry  must  be  freed  from  all  its  former 
shackles. 

A  new  lesson  we  must  learn — inasmuch  as  indus- 
try makes  a  nation  great  and  prosperous — the  school 
as  well  as  the  state  must  chiefly  direct  its  efforts 
toward  the  promotion  of  manufactures  and  indus- 
try. For,  as  skill  and  excellency  are  only  attained 
by  habitual  exercise,  we  must  be  trained  to  indus- 
try from  early  childhood. 


2l8  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

Liberty,  industry  and  peace  are  indissolubly 
linked  together.  Nothing  but  the  enlightened 
self-interest  of  industry  and  commerce  will  event- 
ually abolish  war  among  nations. 

But  industry  and  commerce,  which  cement  for- 
eign nations,  should  they  not  draw  closer  to  each 
other  the  different  classes  and  conditions  in  the 
same  nation  by  showing  them  the  identity  of  their 
interests  ? 

Industry,  says  Leckey,  while  it  disposes  nations 
for  peace,  makes  them  strong  in  war. 

Under  the  industrial  regime  production  gives 
rise  to  new  wants,  and  wants  to  new  exertions, 
and  exertions  to  wealth,  which  again  gives  rise  to 
refined  tastes,  finer  perceptions  of  beauty  and  intel- 
lectual aspirations. 

Industry  produces  capital,  which  gives  opportu- 
nity for  higher  pursuits. 

Slavery,  war  and  despotism,  all  recede  before 
industry.  A  law-abiding  spirit,  sobriety,  integrity 
and  a  steady  character  arc  all  in  the  wake  of 
industry. 

The  old  ascetic  spirit  destroys  with  human  nature 
human  energy.  Industiy  strengthens  human  ener- 
gies and  unites  all  by  an  enlightened  self-interest. 

Human  industry  has  connected  oceans  separated 
by  continents;  has  drained  lakes  in  low  lands  and 
created  others  in  high  places ;  has  pierced  moun- 


''  The  Progress  of  Civilization.  219 

tain  chains ;  has  planted  gardens  in  the  wilderness ; 
has  built  cities  upon  the  waves  of  the  ocean ;  has 
laid  low  ancient  forests  ;  has  changed  climates ;  has 
turned  rivers  from  their  natural  course  and  has 
altered  the  face  of  the  whole  earth  by  changing  its 
vegetable  covering.  St.  Helena,  when  discovered 
in  1505,  produced  about  sixty  vegetable  species, 
including  but  three  or  four  known  to  grow  else- 
where, also.  At  the  present  time  its  flora  numbers 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  species.  The  flora  of  trop- 
ical America  has  been  found  by  Humboldt  and 
Bonpland  to  have  been  greatly  introduced  after 
the  discovery  of  the  New  World.  At  the  time  of 
Aristotle  the  peach,  that  ripens  to-day  in  England 
and  Germany,  could  but  imperfectly  be  raised  under 
the  Grecian  sky ;  and  many  of  the  fruits  that  in  the 
days  of  Pliny  thrived  but  poorly  in  sunny  Italy,  do 
well  to-day  in  northern  Europe.  The  mulberry 
tree  was  introduced  in  southern  France  in  1500, 
and  to-day  it  does  well  in  much  more  northerly 
climes  of  Europe. 

Who  dares  to  deny  but  that  tropical  plants  may 
ultimately  grow  in  the  temperate  zone,  by  industry 
transplanting  them  gradually  into  countries  more 
and  more  removed  from  their  tropical  home  ? 

The  changes  effected  by  human  industry  in  the 
animal  kingdom  are  not  less  extensive  than  those 
in  the  vegetable  world,  and  these  changes  multiply 


220  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

each  other  by  their  mutual  bearings,  until  the  final 
results  assume  a  universal  aspect. 

Not  to  speak  of  the  changes  effected  by  the 
introduction  of  birds  which  live  on  insects — the 
agency  of  which  is  important  in  fertilizing  plants — 
the  ox,  the  horse,  the  sheep,  the  swine,  so  useful 
to  man,  have  all  been  transplanted  to  the  New 
World  by  human  industry,  as  hardly  any  of  the 
quadrupeds  of  the  Old  World  were  found  in  Amer- 
ica. And  in  our  own  day  the  Cashmere  or  Thibet 
goat  was  brought  but  in  1850  to  South  Carolina 
and  the  camel  to  Texas  and  New  Mexico,  where 
they  promise  to  do  well. 

The  monumental  buildings  of  the  world  are  its 
true  public  libraries,  seen  and  read  by  all,  spreading 
in  one  or  another  style  lessons  of  severe  and  chaste 
beauty  or  of  spiritual  grandeur,  and  imparting  the 
spirit  and  civilization  of  one  age  to  another ;  and 
this,  too,  is  the  work  of  industry. 

With  the  increase  of  pleasure  and  refinement 
arising  from  the  beauty  and  delicacy  of  an  in- 
dustry daily  more  assuming  the  character  of  art, 
human  sensibility  and  kindliness  of  heart  spread 
among  men,  and  brought  with  them  a  higher  state 
of  civilization.  As  laborers,  mechanics  and  manu- 
facturers obtained  wealth,  they  gained  importance 
and  achieved  freedom,  consideration  and  influence; 
the  courts  and  the  law  had  to  do  them  justice,  and 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  221 

thus  changed  all  together;  governments  had  to 
consult  them  and  became  representative  and  con- 
stitutional ;  and  now,  at  last,  schools  have  to  suit 
their  course  to  the  practical  needs  of  the  la- 
borer. 

We  best  learn  the  nature  of  Education  by  study- 
ing it  in  the  great  style  of  Providence  or  universal 
history,  which  is  the  Education  of  the  race.  The 
Education  of  the  individual  must  be  in  kind  the 
same  as  the  Education  of  the  race,  and  must  end 
in  it.  If  educators  find  nothing  in  the  history  and 
development  of  the  race  that  concerns  them,  the 
worse  for  their  system  ;  as  for  us  the  Education  of 
the  individual  must  begin  the  very  work  the  Edu- 
cation of  the  race  will  complete. 

Draw  closer  the  connection  between  the  school 
and  industry,  science  and  the  trades,  and  spread 
sound  economical  knowledge,  and  a  humane  dispo- 
sition among  employers  and  employees,  and  you 
reduce  the  mortality  of  the  laborers  of  the  land  by 
at  least  50,000,  and  the  number  of  cases  of  sick- 
ness by  750,000  per  annum. 

There  is  hardly  a  department  of  science  but  its 
fundamental  facts  have  been  furnished  by  the  ob- 
servation of  the  practical  men  of  industry.  But 
how  many  of  these  observations  are  lost  through 
the  want  of  scientific  knowledge  in  the  practical 
workers  of  the  world,  and  who  can  set  a  limit  to 


222  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

future  progress  and  improvement  when  practical 
workers  will  be  scientific  observers  ? 

As  long  as  labor  is  a  drudgery,  leaving  the  mind 
and  the  heart  vacant,  men  will  rather  scheme  than 
work.  Join  to  labor  science  and  art,  and  the  ven- 
erated high  priests  of  human  industry,  ministering 
in  their  laboratories  to  the  comforts  and  necessities 
of  mankind,  will  find  their  work  a  delight  and  a 
pleasure,  they  would  no  more  exchange  with  the 
leisure  of  the  elegant  trifler  than  the  toiling  chem- 
ist or  physicist  would. 

Labor  is  the  physical  aspect  of  moral  power,  and 
a  nation  cannot  be  free,  powerful  and  truly  great 
without  being  eminent  for  its  industry.  Rome  and 
Greece  possessed  no  industries,  neither  were  they 
great,  for  their  masses  were  slaves. 

Industry,  through  constant  exercise,  bestows  the 
freedom  of  the  power  of  using  our  faculties  for  our 
own  good  as  well  as  for  the  good  of  the  race,  and 
this  freedom  constitutes  true  liberty. 

As  long  as  war  is  tolerated,  the  spirit  of  rapacity, 
inhumanity  and  domination  will  pervade  every 
sphere  of  private  and  public  life,  and  men  and 
nations  will  be  barbarians.  As  long  as  men  are 
fools  and  knaves  enough  to  butcher  one  another,  it 
is  simply  ridiculous  to  talk  of  civilization,  which 
only  can  begin  where  war  ends.  War  deteriorates 
a  nation  physically  as  well  as  morally.    After  every 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  223 

great  war — in  Sweden  and  Germany  after  the  thirty- 
years'  war,  in  Prussia  after  the  sev^en  years'  war  and 
in  France  after  the  great  Napoleonic  war  —  the 
number  of  diseased,  crippled  and  weak  men  had 
increased  to  an  extent  that  interfered  with  the 
recruiting  office.  For,  as  the  able-bodied  men  have 
been  taken  from  their  homes,  and  have  fallen  in 
the  field,  the  weak  and  the  sickly  formed  families 
and  humanity  necessarily  was  physically  deteri- 
orated. 

So,  for  instance,  do  we  find  in  France  exempt 
from  the  service — aside  from  causes  of  sickness, 
low  stature  or  of  being  crippled — for  constitutional 
weakness,  in 

18 16-1820     .     .     .     51.05  in  1,000  recruits. 

1831-1835     .     .     .     79.04 

1 865-1 868     .     .     .     96.90        "  •* 

In  Prussia  were  exempt  for  all  causes  of  sickness, 
for  being  crippled,  constitutionally  weak  and  of  low 
stature,  in 

1 83 1 345  in  1,000  recruits. 

1854 382 

1858-1862  .....    423 

In  Saxony,  were  exempt  from  the  service  for  all 
causes  in 

1832-1836  33  in  100. 

1850-1854 50       " 


224  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

The  steadily  diminishing  number  of  long-lived 
persons  is  another  incontestable  proof  of  a  deteri- 
orating humanity.  There  were  in  Sweden  over 
90  years  of  age  in 


IVomen, 

Men. 

1751 . 

.      10.4 

in 

1,000. 

6.6 

in  1,000. 

1763 . 

.    7 

" 

4 

"         (1766) 

1780  . 

•    4-4 

i( 

3-4 

" 

1790  . 

.     5-3 

<< 

2.7 

"         (1775) 

1800  . 

.    2.7 

« 

1-3 

" 

We  dare  not  enter  upon  a  recital  of  the  social, 
moral  and  economical  disorders  which  follow  wars, 
neither  is  it  necessary,  as  we  all  keenly  feel  them 
just  now. 

Our  armies  are  slaughter  houses.  The  killed  in 
the  field  are  the  least.  The  barracks  and  the  camp 
do  the  work  of  destruction.  Though  the  soldiers 
are  picked  men,  the  mortality  among  them  is  dou- 
ble that  of  the  entire  population. 

Balfour  shows  the  mortality  in  England  in  a 
1,000  population  at  the  age  of 

20-25.   25-30.    30-35.    35-40. 
:;  Civilians    ...       8.4  9.2         10.2         11.6 

\  Soldiers     .     .     .     17.0         18.3         18.4         19.3 

The  mortality  of  colonial  troops  in  warm  climates 
is  a  real  slaughter,  and  amounts  among  the  English 
troops  in 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  225 

The  Bermudas    .     .     .     .  to  52.1  in  1,000. 

St.  Helena "33 

Jamaica "128         " 

The  Small  Antilles      .     .  "  82.5 

Ceylon "75  " 


In  the  Russian  army  the  regular  mortality  is  38 
in  i,ocxD,  almost  four-fold  what  it  is  among  the 
common  people  at  the  same  ages. 

In  Algeria,  during  the  war,  the  French  lost  loo,- 
000  men,  of  whom  3,400  died  from  wounds,  while 
more  than  nineteen  out  of  every  twenty  were  the 
victims  of  camp  diseases. 

During  the  first  seven  months  of  the  Crimean 
war  38.5  per  cent,  of  the  English  troops  died  from 
camp  diseases. 

In  the  great  Russian  campaign  Bonaparte  lost 
two-thirds  of  his  magnificent  army,  before  he 
reached  Moscow,  in  camp  diseases.  The  great 
Russian  army  of  209,800  men  that  opposed  him 
counted,  after  five  months,  40,290  men. 

In  our  own  great  war  we  had  from  June  i,  1861, 
to  June  I,  1863,  53.2  deaths  per  annum  for  every 
1,000  men  in  the  field,  of  whom  8.6  died  from 
wounds  and  44.6  from  camp  diseases. 

We  know  the  slaughter  in  the  battle  field  was 
great,  and  yet  the  slaughter  in  the  camp  was  more 
than  five  times  as  large  as  that  by  ball  and  powder. 
The  slaughter  from  suicide  is  not  less  remarkable 


226  The  Progress  of  Civilizaiion. 

in  the  army,  and  compares  with  the  number  of 
suicides  among  civihans  in 

Saxony as  177  to  100. 

_  France "  253        " 

Prussia "  293         " 

Sweden "  423         " 

Austria "  643         " 

And  Christian  governments  foster  military  organi- 
zations and  parade  with  them  on  occasions  of  great 
religious  solemnity.  Russia  is  carrying  on  a  war 
of  aggression  against  Turkey  with  a  prospect  of 
another  war  fifty  years  hence  for  the  enslavement 
of  the  whole  of  Europe.  Has  the  press  a  word 
against  it  ?  Is  our  plea,  then,  for  the  sacredness 
of  human  life  out  of  season  ?  According  to  an 
article  in  the  Lancet  of  April  10,  1841,  the  mortal- 
ity in  the  English  work-houses  was  207  in  1,000! 

But  we  need  not  go  so  far  back.     It  amounted 
in  47  work-houses  in 

London,  1851-55  ....     227.2  in  1,000. 

Berlin,  1852 142.8         " 

Massachusetts,  1861-67      .     133.7         " 

The  wantonness  of  these  mortalities  among  the 
state  poor  appears  in  its  true  light  when  we  con- 
sider that  even  in  hospitals,  which  only  take  in  the 
sick,  the  mortality  averages  in  the  smaller  150  in 
1,000  and  in  the  larger  100  in  1,000,  and  that  on 
an  average  there  is  but  one  death  for  fifteen  cases 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  227 

of  sickness,  so  that  a  sick  man  entering  a  hospital 
has  a  better  chance  of  life  than  a  poor  man  enter- 
ing the  almshouse.  Among  prisoners  averaging  30- 
40  years,  30-50  in  a  thousand  die  per  annum,  while 
in  the  outside  world  the  mortality  among  men  of 
the  same  ages  is  but  10-20  in  1,000. 

If  the  mortality  in  our  public  institutions,  right 
under  the  eye  and  control  of  the  government,  sur- 
passes the  general  mortality  —  which  already  in- 
cludes all  sorts  of  vicious  and  criminal  classes — 
must  we  not  conclude  that  sacredness  of  human 
life  has  not  as  yet  the  supreme  influence  it  ought 
to  have  even  with  the  guardians  of  public  order 
and  safety  ? 

Or  is  this  fearful  mortality  in  our  public  institu- 
tions due  to  the  deep-seated  deterioration  in  the 
classes  gathered  in  them  ?  We  do  not  deny  it 
partly  is,  and  this  establishes  our  position  of  the 
prevalence  of  deteriorating  tendencies  in  society, 
which,  again,  have  very  much  for  their  basis  a  gen- 
eral disregard  for  human  life,  which  allows  causes 
unfavorable  to  human  life  to  accumulate  and  gather 
strength  until  they  settle  in  a  permanent  deterio- 
rated type  of  humanity. 

No,  the  sacredness  of  human  life  does  not  as  yet 
find  the  recognition  it  calls  for.  We  occasionally 
suspend  hostilities  to  give  a  chance  to  the  natural 
increase  of  population  and  to  the  industrial  savings 


228  The  Progress  of  Civilisation. 

of  a  few  years  of  peace  to  fill  the  gap  made  in  the 
ranks  and  in  the  pocket  by  Krupp's  eighty-ton 
guns,  the  improved  implements  of  destruction  of 
an  advanced  Christian  civilization. 

War  organized  and  carried  on  openly  by  govern- 
ments established  mainly  for  the  protection  of  the 
lives  of  the  citizens,  is  the  most  flagrant  outrage 
upon  God,  man  and  nature ;  and,  as  long  as  it  is  tol- 
erated, justice  among  men  will  be  but  a  mockery. 
For,  if  governments  indulge  in  direct  murder  for 
the  sake  of  self-aggrandizement,  why  should  not 
individuals  commit  indirect  murder  for  the  same 
purpose  }  And  they  do,  as  the  slaughter  of  fac- 
tories, railroads  and  tenement  houses  proves. 

Dr.  Parne  finds  scrofula  prevalent  in  the  indus- 
trial district  of  the  department  of  Aude.  Bossard 
ascribes  the  physical  debility  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  Ardennes  to  their  industries.  In  Haute  Rhin, 
Muller  tells  us  that  the  agriculturists  are  fine  men, 
while  the  operatives  are  pale  and  sickly.  Poter 
finds  in  the  department  of  the  Rhone  the  people, 
exclusively  devoted  to  manufacturing,  physically 
degenerated  and  furnishing  the  greatest  number  of 
exempts  from  the  service. 

Dr.  EngL'l  showed  for  Saxony  in  1852,  1853  and 
1854  unfit  for  the  service. 

In  cities 56  in  100. 

In  the  country 51      " 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  229 

Repeated  recruiting  gave  the  following  results 
as  to  unfitness  for  the  service  : 

Farmers 46  in  100  recruits. 

Cabinet-makers    ...  51  "  " 

Operatives 57  "  " 

Artists 63  "  " 

Merchants 70  "  " 

Scholars 80  "  " 

Domestics 83  "  " 

A  higher  civilization  must  protect  us  against  the 
insiduous  attacks  upon  life  growing  out  of  the  con- 
ditions of  a  lower  state  of  civilization  as  well  as 
against  the  open  violence  of  the  savage  state.  It 
must  deal  with  causes,  and  not  with  isolated  fla- 
grant acts,  which  like  weeds  spring  up  from  the  old 
stock. 

The  higher  civilization  is  greatly  hygienic  and 
improves  the  race  in  its  highest  aspects  by  improv- 
ing its  physical  basis  and  its  very  genesis. 

Our  industries  create  a  new  sort  of  barbarism  in 
the  very  midst  of  our  much  boasted  civilization  by 
their  stolid  indifference  to  the  physical  and  moral 
condition  of  the  millions  engaged  in  them. 

Several  years  ago  the  average  age  at  death  in  the 
weaveries  of  Leicester  was  eighteen  years !  For 
everyone  agriculturist,  who  dies  from  lung  diseases, 
2.63  die  from  the  same  diseases  in  the  manufac- 
turing town  of  Manchester.  Of  women  engaged 
in  lace  making  617  die  from  the  same  terrible  mal- 


230  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

ady  to  every  301  men  otherwise  occupied  in  the 
same  district.  At  the  age  of  thirty-five  to  forty- 
five  the  mortality  of  the  London  tailors  is  57  per 
cent,  and  the  mortality  of  the  London  printers 
117  per  cent,  higher  than  that  of  the  agriculturists. 
At  the  age  of  forty-five  to  fifty-five  London  tai- 
lors have  twice  and  London  printers  more  than 
twice  the  mortality  of  the  agriculturists. 

The  enumeration  of  the  various  pests  making 
havoc  among  the  workmen  in  many  industries,  and 
against  which  a  higher  civilization  must  protect 
the  masses,  would  fill  not  one,  but  many  volumes. 

Of  1,078  children  who  worked  in  English  spin- 
neries  22  reached  the  fortieth  year  and  but  9  the 
fiftieth.  Of  824  young  hands  in  six  spinneries  183 
enjoyed  good  health,  240  were  in  delicate  health, 
256  were  sick,  43  were  puny,  100  had  tumefactions 
of  joints,  37  had  curvatures  of  the  spine.  Trades 
"with  excessive  labor  cause  inflammations,  curva- 
tures, ruptures  and  hemorrhages. 

According  to  Dr.  Friedlander  one-fourth  of  the 
"workingmen  of  England  and  one-eighth  of  Ger- 
many are  ruptured.  France,  England  and  Ger- 
many keep  an  exact  inventory  of  the  work-peo- 
ple reared  with  the  treasure  of  the  nation.  The 
time  is  coming  when  we  shall  have  to  raise  our 
laborers,  and  then  we  shall  at  least  take  as  good 
care  of  them  as  we  do  of  otlicr  cb.attcl ;  but  until 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  231 

then  the  friend  of  humanity  can  study  only  abroad 
the  effects  of  modern  industry  upon  the  lives  and 
health  and  morals  of  the  work-people. 

Considering  the  army  of  martyrs  among  the 
hands  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  fine  cloth- 
ing, Ruskin  says  of  the  wearers  of  these  articles : 
"  They  have  literally  entered  into  a  partnership  of 
death  and  dressed  themselves  in  his  spoils.  Yes,  if 
the  veil  could  be  lifted  not  only  from  your  thoughts, 
but  from  your  human  sight,  you  would  see — the 
angels  do  see — on  those  gay  white  dresses  of  yours, 
strange,  dark  spots  of  crimson  patterns,  that  you 
know  not  of — spots  of  the  inextinguishable  red 
that  all  the  sea  cannot  wash  away ;  yea,  and  that 
among  the  pleasant  flowers  that  crown  your  fair 
heads  and  glow  on  your  wreathed  hair,  you  would 
see  that  one  weed  was  always  twisted  which 
none  thought  of — the  grass  that  grozvs  on  the 
grave." 

In  our  chase  for  gold  we  have  become  reckless 
as  to  human  life,  and'  so  various  are  the  ways  in 
which  men  in  our  day  are  got  out  of  the  world 
that  fully  half  the  people  die  by  a  brother's  hand. 
This  murderous  spirit  so  perfectly  possesses  this 
age,  that  men  snap  the  cord  of  life  before  their 
sands  are  run.  The  increase  of  suicide  has  been 
fearful  in  the  last  hundred  years.  There  were 
committed  in 


232 


TJic  Progress  of  Civilization. 


Paris,   1 794- 1 804,     . 

.     .    107 

annual  suicides. 

"       1804-1823, 

•     .   334 

"       1830-1835,     .. 

.    .   382 

Beriin,  1758-1775.      • 

.    .     45 

"       1784-1797.      . 

.    .     62 

I 797-1 808,     . 

.    .   126 

1813-1822,      . 

.    .   546 

The  average  annual  suicides  in  France  were 

1826-1830 1,739 

1831-1835 2,263 

1836-1840 2,574 

1841-1845 2,951 

1846-1850 3,466 

1851-1855 3.639 

While  during  1 826-1 856  the  population  has  risen 
from  31,858,937  to  36,039,364,  or  in  the  ratio  of  \oo 
to  113,  suicides  have  risen  in  the  ratio  of  100  to 
209,  so  that  while  the  population  has  but  little 
increased,  suicides  have  more  than  doubled. 

In  Denmark  the  annual  number  of  suicides  were 

1835-1839 261 

1840-1844 300 

1845-1849 330 

1850-1854 389 

1855-1856 414 

The  proportion  of  suicides  has  thus  risen  from 
219  to  392  in  every  million  of  population. 

In  Prussia  suicides  have  increased  in  1823-1858 
from  510  to  2,180. 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  233 

In  general,  suicides  have  increased,  taking  most 
European  countries,  3  to  5  per  cent.,  while  the  aver- 
age increase  of  population  has  been  1.64  per  cent. 

The  proportion  of  suicides  in 


Denmark     .     .     . 

is  388 

in 

1,000,000  pop 

Saxony    .... 

"  215 

«           « 

Scandinavia     .     . 

"  126 

<(           <i 

Germany     .     .     . 

"   112 

<i           <« 

France    .... 

"  105 

«           <( 

Spain    and    other 

Romanic  nations 

"     80 

<i           « 

Slavonic  races  .     . 

"    47 

"           " 

The  annual  ratio  of  suicides  to  every  million 
population  is  for 

Berlin 212 

Rural  Districts 123 

Geneva 250 

Copenhagen 477 

Rural  Districts 488 

Paris 640 

Rural  Districts no 

According  to  Legoyt  the  proportion  of  suicides 
in  a  million  population  is  in  France  among 

Farmers 90 

Industrials 128 

Liberal  Professions 218 

The  Poor 569 

These  figures  speak  volumes.  For  only  a  dete- 
riorated humanity  can  act  contrary  to  the  natural 
instincts  of  self-preservation,  and  the  increasing 


234  TJie  Progress  of  Civilization. 

ratios  of  a  suicidal  mania  prove,  therefore,  a  pro- 
gressive deterioration  of  the  race.  And  as  Hke 
insanity  suicide  is  most  prevalent  among  civilized 
nations,  in  the  large  centres  of  the  world,  and 
among  classes  of  men  who  are  mostly  drawn  into 
the  vortex  of  civilization,  the  falsity  of  this  very 
civilization  is  the  unavoidable  conclusion. 

The  social  relations  of  a  people  are  the  main 
factors  of  the  prevalent  suicidal  mania,  the  amount 
of  which  is  the  guage  of  its  prosperity,  health  and 
soundness.  In  our  extravagance,  luxury  makes  of 
the  one  a  blas6,  and  misery  crushes  the  other,  until 
both  lose  their  mental  balance,  and  neither  the  one 
nor  the  other  cares  for  living.  This  demoralized 
condition  loudly  calls  for  a  more  solid  Education 
and  training  in  our  youth,  and  for  an  industrial 
system  and  laws  in  consonance  with  the  physical 
and  moral  elements  of  our  nature,  which  only  a 
government  based  upon  hygiene  can  give  us. 

Pauperism,  crime  and  human  degeneracy  in  its 
various  forms,  treated  in  other  parts  of  this  work, 
lead  by  various  routes  to  self-destruction,  the  final 
judgment  of  nature,  events  and  of  the  individual 
upon  himself. 

Murder,  insanity  and  oppression  beyond  endur- 
ance culminate  in  suicide,  the  most  tragic  catas- 
trophe in  life  in  which  man  wrecked  in  his  mind 
and  all  else  makes  the  fearful  plunge.    Yes,  suicide 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  235 

is  but  one  of  the  many  forms  of  social  murder, 
which  must  be  stayed,  that  something  may  be 
sacred  beside  gold — and  that  is  human  life. 

Do  we  give  an  uncertain  sound  ?  We  trace  on 
every  page  of  the  history  of  our  age  the  spirit  of 
social  murder  and  insist  upon  an  honest  regard  for 
human  life.  We  insist  upon  an  unflinchingly  sani- 
tary government,  that  will  protect  the  life  of  the 
poor  and  his  children  as  much  as  the  property  of 
the  rich. 

The  ages  of  war  have  not  slain  more  men  than 
this  age  of  industry  has.  The  ages  of  war  have 
spared  at  least  women  and  children.  This  age  of 
industry  has  fastened  its  fangs  deepest  even  in  the 
flesh  of  women  and  children. 

The  stolid  indifference  with  which  industry  sees 
the  life  of  the  poor  waste  away,  nurses  among  the 
masses  an  apathy  that  must  become  dangerous  to 
society. 

In  the  name  of  God,  humanity  and  the  future 
peace  of  the  world,  let  industry  lesson  the  people 
in  other  sentiments  than  contempt  of  life  and  a 
disregard  of  humanity. 

The  adjustments  of  an  infinite  Providence  may 
turn  to  profit  the  slaughter  of  wars  and  revolutions, 
and  death  may  feed  life  in  decaying  organisms,  but 
it  is  madness  still  to  destroy  life  that  out  of  its 
ashes  it  may  rise  again. 


236  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

Already  Pinel  noticed  the  immense  points  of 
contact  between  the  diseases  of  men  and  the  world's 
history.  Let  statesmen  study  less  politics  and 
more  pathology.  They  will  thereby  prevent  dis- 
eases physicians  vainly  endeavor  to  cure.  By  ac- 
quainting themselves  with  the  special  tendencies 
of  certain  classes  and  ages  to  suffer  from  leading 
diseases,  statesmen  learn  how  they  may  preserve 
the  health  and  strength  of  the  nation.  That  there 
are  general  social  relations  under  which  death  and 
disease  single  out  whole  classes  and  ages  for  their 
special  victims  we  have  established  by  facts,  rea- 
sonings and  authorities. 

The  diseases  of  a  people  and  the  degree  of  their 
sufferings  are  the  truest  index  to  the  culture,  the 
moral  and  social  condition  as  well  as  the  prosperity 
of  a  nation.  "  History,"  says  Virchhow,"  has  more 
than  once  shown  that  the  destiny  of  a  nation  de- 
pends upon  its  condition  of  health  and  energy,  and 
it  is  plain  the  pathological  history  of  a  people  is 
inseparable  from  its  civilization.  Fearful  rates  of 
mortality  are  writings  on  the  wall  in  which  the 
statesman  of  capacity  can  read  the  disturbing  ele- 
ment which  has  invaded  the  life  of  the  nation,  and 
which  even  a  careless  government  cannot  afford  to 
overlook." 

There  was  a  time  when  the  wrath  of  the  gods 
was  looked  upon  as  the  source  of  disease ;  later  the 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  237 

stars  had  to  bear  the  blame ;  to-day  it  is  the  occult 
forces  of  nature  and  what  not,  instead  of  tracing 
the  main  cause  of  disease  in  the  food  we  eat,  in 
the  water  we  drink,  in  the  air  we  breathe,  in  our 
occupations  and  their  deleterious  influences  and 
cares,  anxieties,  over-exertions  and  ensuing  debility. 

Civilization  is  the  conquest  of  nature  and  of  our-, 
selves  through  obedience   to  the   laws   of  being. 
And,  certainly,  a  people  cannot  be  said  to  be  civil- 
ized which  is  greatly  wrecked  and  diseased,  body 
and  soul,  by  slavery,  want  and  misery. 

We  understand  the  significance  of  prevailing 
rates  of  mortality.  We  know  they  greatly  vary  in 
the  different  industries  and  may  be  swelled  or  low- 
ered by  measures  taken  or  neglected  ;  and  still  the 
government,  which  alone  has  the  power  of  enforc- 
ing such  measures,  takes  no  notice  of  this  matter, 
involving  as  it  is  the  lives  of  tens  of  thousands. 
England  has  long  ago  shown  its  wisdom  and  hu- 
manity by  its  factory  legislation,  which  is  being 
imitated  by  every  other  government,  as  local  legis- 
lation is  too  much  under  private  influence,  and  the 
self-help  of  the  work-people  is  liable  to  run  into 
excess. 

Moses,  Lycurgus  and  Numa  have  knitted  togeth- 
er slaves  and  brigands  into  nations  loving  liberty, 
order  and  virtue,  through  institutions  embodying 
immortal  principles ;  and  to-day  great  nations  are 


238  TJic  Progress  of  Civilization. 

threatened  with  dissolution  through  the  all-disin- 
tegrating selfishness  of  a  self-seeking  age.  There 
is  a  mutinous  war  of  the  masses  the  world  over, 
in  Germany,  France,  England,  Belgium,  Holland, 
Italy,  Spain,  Scandinavia,  Russia  and  in  America. 
This  is  no  more  a  prophecy.  It  is  history  for  all 
who  can  read. 

Never  were  the  conditions  more  favorable  for 
the  building  up  of  a  great  and  beautiful  humanity 
than  to-day.  Prejudices  of  race  are  dead,  and  we 
are  all  brothers ;  slaves  no  more  work  for  us,  but 
we  delight  in  industry  and  live  by  it ;  the  ignorance 
of  former  days  has  passed  away,  and  science  illu- 
mines and  directs  us  all. 

Humanity y  ifidiisiry  aiid  science  incorporated  into 
public  institutions,  established  for  the  preservation 
and  the  improvement  of  the  race,  and  based  upon 
an  unflinching  regard  for  human  life  and  ivhatcver 
touches  vta7i  and  his  rights,  duties  and  entire  nature, 
may  still  give  rise  to  a  gra?id  and  beautiful  human- 
ity, such  as  the  past  has  neither  known  ?ior  conceived 
of  and  this  consummatioii  zvill  be  achieved  when  hy- 
giene, the  law  of  life  and  health,  will  control  the 
individual  as  zvell  as  the  7iation  as  the  supreme  law 
of  a  grand  and  a  complete  humanity. 

It  is  not  bread  for  the  stomach,  but  regard  for 
humanity,  the  life,  the  mind  and  the  position  of 
the  masses  the  age  demands. 


The  Progress  of  Civili:^atio7i.  239 

But  the  right  of  the  masses  to  this  regard  implies 
their  duty  to  exercise  it  themselves  toward  others, 
which  unless  they  do,  can  never  become  a  universal 
sentiment,  as  is  desirable  for  the  good  of  mankind. 

Self-sufficient  capital  may  delight  in  the  strife  of 
competition,  which  by  itself  would  reduce  the  so- 
cial world  into  conflicting  atoms ;  and  labor  may 
consider  paramount  association,  by  which  it  sus- 
tains itself  in  its  weakness.  We  acknowledge  both 
these  principles  as  necessary  and  natural  comple- 
ments to  each  other ;  still  neither  competition  nor 
association  are  the  highest  elements  of  civilization  ; 
they  are  both  but  means  to  an  end,  and  this  end  is 
humanity  itself,  and  the  highest  principle  is,  there- 
fore, regard  for  human  life  or  the  preservation  of 
the  race. 

The  oddity  of  our  position  does  not  escape  us. 
Setting  aside  the  high  considerations  of  philo- 
sophy and  literature,  we  treat  the  life,  health 
and  well-being  of  the  masses  as  the  question  of 
civilization.  And  this  our  subject  not  suffering  us 
to  turn  from  it  for  the  sake  of  making  apologies, 
we  will  only  say  what  needs  no  further  proof,  that 
the  health  and  well-being  of  a  people  are  its  wis- 
dom and  its  virtue,  and  its  honor  and  its  greatness 
among  the  nations,  as  its  weakness  and  its  poverty 
are  its  folly,  and  its  crimes  and  its  downfall  and  its 
shame  amone  the  nations. 


240  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

It  is  clear  to  every  historical  student  .vho  casts 
his  eye  observingly  over  the  world,  that  a  most 
fearful  revolution  is  imminent,  one  not  to  be  put 
down  with  the  baton  of  the  police  nor  with  the 
bayonet  or  cannon  of  the  regular  army.  We  would, 
therefore,  inspire  a  sacred  regard  for  human  life, 
such  as  would  lead  to  peaceful  reformation  and 
improvement.  But  if  the  fates,  or,  better,  the  folly 
and  inhumanity  of  man,  have  decided  upon  revolu- 
tion and  violence,  may  the  lesson  of  the  sacredness 
of  human  life,  repeated  on  every  page  and  almost 
in  every  line  of  this  volume,  help  assuage  the 
wrath  of  man,  and  stay 'in  some  degree  the  fratri- 
cidal hand  of  man  raised  against  his  brother  man. 

There  is  no  other  foundation  for  peace,  pros- 
perity, freedom,  concord  and  equity  among  men 
than  the  sacredness  of  human  life ;  it  is  our  only 
security  against  oppression,  injustice  and  grinding 
rapacity.  The  sacredness  of  human  life  means 
educational  opportunities  for  all ;  it  means  the 
integrity  of  the  family,  the  bulwark  of  civilization 
against  its  dissolution  and  moral  chaos ;  it  means 
sobriety,  temperance  and  moderation  against  all 
that  leads  to  drunkenness,  madness  and  human 
decay ;  the  sacredness  of  human  life  pleads  for  the 
fallen  criminal,  who  is  after  all  a  man,  and  against 
his  further  brutalization  and  the  gallows;  the  sa- 
credness of  human  life  pleads  for  the  good  of  all, 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  241 

be  they  rich  or  poor,  strong  or  weak,  wise  or  fool- 
ish, aye,  be  they  good  or  bad,  as  all  are  men  and 
all  are  more  or  less  erring  and  all  in  want  of  more 
light  and  more  love. 

The  sacredness  of  human  life  alone  is  the  har- 
binger of  the  reign  of  justice,  love  and  peace  and 
of  God's  kingdom  among  men.  But  there  is  a 
new  school  of  reformers  who,  discarding  every  no- 
ble sentiment  that  dwells  in  the  human  breast, 
feign  to  make  us  believe  that  might  is  right  and 
brute  force  is  the  highest  divinity.  These  self- 
styled  Darwinians  say  the  struggle  for  existence  is 
nature's  method  for  weeding  out  the  weak  and  im- 
proving the  race.  The  old  practice  of  destroying 
feeble  children  is  approved  of;  hospitals  are  dis- 
carded ;  wars  are  deemed  useful  as  mowing  down 
the  less  vigorous  ;  no  quarters  are  given  to  the 
weak,  and  the  gospel  of  war  and  selfishness  is 
preached  in  the  name  of  Darwin  and  his  principle 
of  the  "  survival  of  the  fittest." 

Humanity  revolts  against  this  slaughter  -  pen 
civilization,  which  is  not  less  false  in  principle  as 
it  is  cruel  in  practice.  Though  the  law  of  heredity 
is  true,  still  the  law  of  the  dissimilarity  of  children 
and  parents  is  not  less  true  than  the  law  of  simi- 
larity, and  the  law  of  deterioration  is  often  cor- 
rected by  the  natural  tendency  of  reverting  to  the 
normal  type,  which  is  effected  by  children  taking 


242  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

after  the  healthier  organized  of  the  two  parents  or 
even  after  a  remote  ancestor  ;  and,  hence,  a  father 
mean  in  body  and  soul  has  often  children  of  finest 
quality.  We  must  not  push  inferences  to  an  un- 
reasonable extent  and  preach  in  the  name  of  Dar- 
win indirect  murder,  already  too  prevalent. 

We  are  not  to  join  the  blind  elements  against  a 
brother,  but  rather  avert  from  him  their  fury.  We 
must  instruct  the  ignorant,  strengthen  the  weak, 
lead  the  fallen  back  to  virtue's  ways,  and  thus  use 
all  gentler  means  for  the  improvement  of  the  race  ; 
and  if  death  and  destruction  are  to  come,  the  earth 
has  her  volcanoes  and  the  skies  are  armed  with 
thunderbolts.  But  let  not  man  volunteer  to  be  a 
minister  of  death  to  his  brother  man,  directly  or 
indirectly,  either  by  what  he  does  or  by  what  he 
omits  to  do. 

Only  when  the  sanctity  of  human  life  will  deter- 
mine our  Education  and  industry,  will  our  progress 
in  civilization  be  genuine.  The  history  of  the  world 
is  as  yet  but  the  history  of  humanity  suffering  death 
under  a  thousand  forms  at  the  fratricidal  hand  of 
man.' 

The  Spartans  hunted  down  their  slaves,  occa- 
sionally, as  if  they  were  the  meanest  animals,  to 
keep  down  their  numbers. 

The  Greeks  butchered  in  war  in  cold  blood,  spar- 
ing neither  age,  sex  nor  station. 


The  Progress  of  Civilizatmi.  243 

The  Romans,  as  we  have  seen,  were  no  less  cruel 
at  home  than  in  war.  Cicero,  having  been  beheaded 
by  the  order  of  Antonius,  and  his  head  having 
been  brought,  Fulvia,  the  wife  of  Antonius,  struck 
it  on  the  face,  drew  out  the  tongue  and  pierced  it 
with  a  bodkin. 

The  dehght  of  the  Romans  in  the  combat  of 
wild  beasts  with  slaves  shows  their  bloodthirsti- 
ness.     Turkey  never  showed  such  barbarity. 

Clotaire,  King  of  the  Franks,  559,  burned  alive 
his  son  with  all  his  friends,  because  they  rebelled 
against  him.  Queen  Brunehaut,  being  condemned 
by  Clotaire  II.,  was  dragged  through  the  camp  at  a 
horse's  tail  till  she  gave  up  her  ghost.  The  Goths 
were  extremely  prone  to  blood.  The  Scythians 
made  use  of  the  skulls  of  their  enemies  to  drink 
out  of.  The  Gauls  deposited  the  heads  of  their 
slain,  brought  from  battle,  in  chests  as  trophies. 
The  scalping  of  enemies  by  Indians  is  too  well- 
known. 

The  French  peasants,  in  the  civil  wars  in  1358 — • 
sorely  oppressed  by  the  nobles  warring  against  each 
other — hung  a  knight,  after  they  had  violated  in  his 
presence  wife  and  daughters,  whom  they  forced  to 
eat  of  the  flesh  of  the  husband  and  father  they  had 
roasted  upon  the  spit,  and  terminated  that  horrid 
scene  by  murdering  the  whole  family  and  burning 
the  castle.     The  nobility  treated  the  peasants  no 


244  T^^^^  Progress  of  Civilization. 

better.  The  Dutch,  in  Amboyna,  deprived  the  na- 
tives, if  they  were  found  guilty  of  theft,  of  their 
ears  and  nose,  and  William  Funnel,  who  was  there 
in  1705,  reports  to  have  seen  500  of  such  ear-and- 
noseless  wretches  in  one  gang. 

Poisoning  and  assassination  were  most  com- 
monly perpetrated  as  late  as  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury in  England.  For  a  score  of  trifling  offenses 
people  were  hung  in  England  as  late  as  this  very 
century.  For  treason  or  lisping  a  word  against  the 
King  of  England  the  prescribed  punishment  was 
to  cut  up  the  criminal  alive,  to  tear  out  his  heart, 
to  dash  it  about  his  ears,  and  to  throw  it  into  the 
flames. 

The  torturing  and  burning  of  the  Jews,  the  knight 
templars,  heretics  and  witches  are  well-known. 

The  treatment  of  the  Mexicans  by  the  Spaniards 
shocks  us  ;  so  does  the  infecting  of  the  Peruvians 
by  the  Portuguese  with  the  clothes  of  smallpox 
and  scarlet  fever  patients,  or  the  shooting  of 
the  Tasmanilians  by  the  English  to  feed  their 
dogs  on  the  flesh  of  these    unfortunates,   or   the 

poisoning  of  wells  with  strychnine  by  the  

to  get  rid  of  the  redskins.  Of  course,  we  would 
not  do  these  things,  and  yet  we  are  but  a  refined 
set  of  anthropophagi  and  let  but  exceedingly  few 
of  our  fellows  die  a  natural  death,  and  the  victims 
of  indirect  or  social  murder  are  more  than  a  thou- 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  245 

sandfold  the  number  of  those  who  are  cut  down 
bluntly  by  the  armed  hand  of  the  undisguised 
homicide. 

The  story  of  Madame  Lapouchin  has  but  too 
often  repeated  itself.  She  was  the  most  admired 
at  the  court  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth  at  St. 
Petersburg.  Suspected  of  plotting  against  the 
government,  she  was  condemned  to  undergo  the 
punishment  of  the  knout.  As  she  appeared  at  the 
place  of  execution,  every  feature  in  her  face  plead 
for  her  innocence.  Her  youth,  her  beauty,  her  life 
and  spirit  pleaded  in  vain  for  her ;  she  was  deserted 
by  all  and  abandoned  to  the  grim  executioners. 
Her  cloak  being  torn  off,  modesty  made  her  start 
back,  she  turned  pale,  and  burst  into  tears.  One 
of  the  executioners  stripped  her  naked  to  the  waist, 
seized  her  with  both  hands,  and  threw  her  upon  his 
back,  raising  her  some  inches  from  the  ground. 
The  other  executioner,  laying  hold  of  her  delicate 
limbs  with  his  rough  fists,  put  her  in  a  posture  for 
receiving  the  punishment.  Then  laying  hold  of 
the  knout — a  sort  of  whip  made  of  a  leathern  strap 
— he,  with  a  single  stroke,  tore  off  a  slip  of  skin 
from  the  neck  downward,  repeating  his  strokes  till 
all  the  skin  of  her  back  was  cut  off  in  small  slips. 
The  executioner  finished  his  task  with  cutting  out 
her  tongue  ;  after  which  she  was  dispatched  to  Si- 
beria, the  land  of  Russian  mercy. 


246  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

Our  theme  is  humanity,  and  were  this  the  history 
of  an  individual  only,  we  should  not  have  told  it 
here ;  but  it  has  repeated  itself  so  many  times  that 
it  has  become  the  history  of  humanity,  and  we 
have  no  apology  to  make  for  its  recital. 

Not  only  pagan  Rome  was  profuse  in  shedding 
human  blood  in  constant  party  strife,  as  the  names 
of  Marius  and  Scylla,  Cinna  and  Octavius  will  call 
to  everybody's  memory.  Not  only  religious  fanat- 
ics have  caused  human  blood  to  flow  in  torrents, 
but  even  in  the  name  of  liberty  and  human  rights 
men  have  been  butchered. 

According  to  good  authority,  18,613  persons  have 
been  guillotined  in  the  madness  of  the  first  French 
revolution.     In  the  Vend6e  have  been  killed  i 

Women I5,cxx), 

Children 22,000, 

Killed  of  all  categories    ....  900,000, 
Carnage  under  the  proconsulate 

Carrier  at  Nantes 32,000, 

Carnage  at  Lyons 31,000. 

Neither  does  the  great  French  revolution  form 
an  exception  to  the  rule. 

Has  the  French  government  not  fusillatcd  forty 
thousand  citizens  in  the  name  of  order  as  it  was 
but  yesterday? 

And  what  is  every  war  organized  by  we  care  not 
what  government,  but  public  murder  sanctioning 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  247 

the  killing  of  our  fellow-men  in  one  or  another 
way  under  one  or  another  pretext,  whenever  it 
suits  our  own  private  advantage  or  public  cupidity, 
national  glory  or  what  not. 

The  murdering  of  wives,  husbands,  children, 
slaves  and  old  men,  the  avenging  of  imaginary 
offenses  in  the  duel,  political  assassinations,  have 
all  been  sanctioned  in  their  turn,  and  the  want  of 
the  unconditional  recognition  of  the  sacredness  of 
human  life  has  marked  every  century  with  another 
form  of  bloody  mania.  At  one  time  husbands  trem- 
bled for  their  lives  as  women  could  not  resist  the 
temptation  of  poisoning  their  natural  protectors. 
At  another  time  tyrants  were  smitten  with  fury, 
and  every  free  thought  was  expiated  on  the  gal- 
lows. Priests  have  more  raged  than  all  other  mad- 
men put  together,  knights  challenged  and  fought 
everybody  for  their  love's  honor  sake,  red  repub- 
licans did  their  part,  and  when  there  was  none 
against  whom  to  turn  a  bloody  hand,  men  ran 
in  companies  to  drown  themselves,  and  laws  pre- 
scribing the  dishonorable  treatment  of  the  dead 
bodies  had  to  be  passed  to  stop  the  suicidal 
mania. 

Give  but  one  page  to  the  sad  story  of  every 
unfortunate  individual,  who  fell  a  victim  to  fratri- 
cidal rage  of  one  or  another  sort  in  the  last  five 
thousand  years,  and  they  would  fill  volumes  out- 


248  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

numbering  the  books  of  all  the  private  and  public 
libraries  of  the  United  States. 

The  lesson  for  which  more  than  ten  thousand 
times  ten  thousand  have  paid  with  their  dear  lives 
can  be  nothing  else  and  nothing  less  than  THE 
SANCTITY   OF   HUMAN   LIFE. 

Men,  nations  and  periods  have  excelled  in  relig- 
ion, poetry  and  philosophy,  and  have  at  the  same 
time  been  inhuman  in  their  dealings.  Herein,  even, 
has  the  past  failed.  It  has  treated  humanity  as  a 
circumstance,  but  not  as  the  corner-stone  of  civili- 
zation. 

None  of  the  civilizations  of  the  past  has  declared 
man  sacred  and  inviolate  by  any  and  every  power, 
under  each  and  every  pretence,  be  it  of  a  private 
or  public  nature,  in  the  name  of  justice,  religion, 
God,  country  or  anything  else. 

It  is  time  man  and  his  well-being  are  declared 
the  paramount  object  of  the  state  and  civilization. 
Wealth,  science,  philosophy,  religion,  were  all  made 
for  man,  and  not  man  for  them. 

Some  put  knowledge  above  man.  But  most  of 
the  knowledge  of  our  age  is  only  the  present  error 
that  replaces  the  error  of  the  past  age,  to  be  in  its 
turn  replaced  by  that  which  is  to  come.  In  Edu- 
cation as  well  as  in  religion,  the  good  of  mankind 
has  hitherto  been  sacrificed  to  barren  opinions. 
We  plead  for  man,  his  life,  his  bread,  his  freedom, 


The  Progress  of  Civilization.  249 

his  happiness.  His  civilization  will  take  care  of 
itself. 

In  spite  of  the  prophets,  poets  and  philosophers 
of  the  past,  ignorance,  misery  and  injustice  have 
cursed  and  oppressed  the  race.  There  is  but  one 
principle,  that  proclaimed  in  all  its  absoluteness, 
can  save  and  bless  the  race,  REGARD  FOR  HUMAN 
LIFE,  FOR  ALL  THAT  PRESERVES,  PROLONGS  AND 
SAVES  HUMAN  LIFE,  AND  AN  ABSOLUTE  CONDEM- 
NATION OF  ALL  THAT  WORKS  DESTRUCTIVELY 
UPON  HUMAN  LIFE,  WEAKENS,  SHORTENS  OR 
RENDERS   IT   BURDENSOME. 

No  man,  or  government,  or  institution  has  a 
right  to  sap  directly  or  indirectly  human  life,  the 
very  foundation  of  all  rights  and  duties,  and  what- 
ever is  sacred  in  human  rights  and  institutions. 

As  the  sanctity  of  human  life  is  the  foundation 
of  civilization,  so  it  is  also  the  cardinal  priniciple 
of  Education,  which  must  aim  at  the  preservation 
and  improvement  of  the  race  through  the  preserva- 
tion and  improvement  of  the  individual. 

We  maintain  civilization  means  something  differ- 
ent than  a  little  gloss  here  and  a  few  sophisms 
there.  It  means  a  people  at  work  for  its  own  good 
and  doing  well ;  a  well-to-do  people ;  the  founda- 
tion of  a  free  and  perfect  manhood,  that  will  in  its 
own  way  work  out  the  problem  of  civilization. 

Industry  will  do  more  for  mankind  than  all  the 


250  The  Progress  of  Civilization. 

Iliads,  Greece  has  excelled  in  philosophy,  Rome 
in  jurisprudence,  and  the  Middle  Ages  in  religion, 
and  each  has  oppressed  the  masses.  Human  life, 
despised  by  them  all,  must  become  the  corner-stone 
of  a  new  and  altogether  different  civilization,  phi- 
losophy, jurisprudence,  religion  and  industry,  such 
as  will  usher  in  a  better  and  happier  age  than  the 
world  has  yet  seen. 

A  straggling  piper,  fiddler,  rhymer  or  dreamer 
are  but  poor  evidences  of  a  high  civilization.  A 
good  government  patterns  after  nature ;  it  builds 
up  the  body,  and  the  mind  will  take  care  of  itself; 
it  looks  after  the  seemingly  trivial  things  of  to-day, 
which  bear  in  them  the  germs  of  the  great  things 
of  to-morrow;  it  sees  the  future  culture  of  the 
masses  in  their  health  and  strength  and  bread  and 
butter  of  to-day,  and  goes  for  it  with  a  will.  This 
is  civilization. 


PART    V. 

THE    PROGRESS    OF  EDUCATION. 

The  progress  of  Education  in  the  United  States, 
as  everywhere  else,  establishes  our  proposition  that 
it  is  the  tendency  of  the  age  to  improve  the  condi- 
tion of  mankind  and  to  solve  the  great  social  prob- 
lem by  making  the  world  a  schoolhouse,  in  which 
humanity  is  not  taught  letters,  but  is  taught  and 
trained  in  the  art  of  living  and  acting. 

At  the  close  of  the  last  century  we  had  but 
twenty-three  colleges  and  thirty-seven  academies 
and  no  common  school  system  in  the  United  States. 
In  1 813,  the  State  of  New  York  appointed  the  first 
superintendent  of  common  schools.  Normal  col- 
leges, school  journals,  high  schools,  and,  at  last, 
the  erection  of  agricultural  and  industrial  schools, 
are  all  of  a  late  date,  and  the  National  Bureau  of 
Education  is  still  more  so.  To-day  the  common 
school  property  of  the  United  States  amounts  to 
$173,838,545,  the  yearly  expenditure  of  the  com- 
mon schools  reaches  the  sum  of  $88,618,950,  and 
the  teachers  number  249,262  !  The  entire  prop- 
erty of  all   sorts   of  schools,   exclusive   of  orphan 

(25O 


252         The  Progress  of  Getter al  Education. 

asylums,    houses   of  correction,    etc.,   amounts   to 
$340,601,718. 

The  following  table  of  the  Commissioner  shows 
how  deeply  and  rapidly  the  conviction  is  spreading 
that  through  the  school  we  are  to  solve  the  great 
social  problem,  and»  hence,  the  erection  of  normal 
colleges,  which  shall  provide  us  with  professional 
teachers  devoted  for  life  to  the  art  of  educating 

men: 

1870.  1871.  1S72.  1873.  1874.  1875.  1876. 

Normal  Colleges  in  U.  S.   .    .    53        65        98        113        124        137        151 

As  the  world  relies  upon  the  school,  the  school 
must  study  the  problem  it  is  to  solve.  The  teacher 
must  understand  the  cause  of  every  deviation  from 
the  normal  type  of  humanity  in  the  pauper,  the 
criminal  and  the  insane ;  he  must  strive  to  lessen 
human  misery  and  weakness  as  far  as  physical, 
mental,  moral  and  industrial  training  enable  him, 
and  that  will  quite  suffice  to  regenerate  the  world. 

It  is  but  a  couple  of  centuries  when  the  doors  of 
the  better  institutions  in  England  were  slammed  in 
the  face  of  the  common  people,  who  had  the  im- 
pertinence to  aspire  after  a  gentleman's  Education. 
It  is  hardly  a  hundred  years  when  in  Scotland, 
foremost  in  Education,  the  usual  deficiency  of  the 
sclioolmastcr's  budget  had  to  be  made  up  by  cock- 
fighting  displayed  in  the  school-room — the  victims 
of  the  feathery  tribe  being  adjudged  the  teacher's — 


The  Progress  of  General  Education.       253 

who  was  sure  to  put  into  the  field  a  most  valiant 
fighting  cock. 

It  is  not  yet  forty  years  that  the  schools  of  the 
people  in  England  had  to  be  provided  for  by  all 
sorts  of  charitable  tricks,  of  which  one  pretty  com- 
mon was  clubs  meeting  every  Saturday  at  the  beer 
houses  and  taking  up  collections  to  pay  the  school- 
master, who  was  a  member  of  the  club  and  was 
bound  to  spend  part  of  his  dues  in  beer.  The 
teacher  was  very  frequently  drawing  pauper  rates, 
and  by  teaching  for  the  consideration  of  four  or 
five  shillings  a  week  kept  out  of  the  working  house. 

No  wonder  teachers  did  not  feel  sweet-tempered, 
who,  as  Friedrich  Richter  informs  us,  had  in  Prussia 
an  average  salary  of  two  hundred  dollars  per  annum, 
while  many  had  but  from  five  to  ten  dollars,  and 
some  got  one  cent  per  week  for  each  scholar,  upon 
which  they  could  but  poorly  subsist,  but  recuper- 
ated during  the  half  of  the  year  when  they  drove 
out  to  pasture  their  bovine  friends,  whom  they 
treated  to  less  blows  than  the  scholars  who  kept 
them  lean.  John  Jacob  Hauberle,  more  punctual 
than  the  rest,  kept  a  School  Flogging  Journal,  in 
which  he  informs  us  of  having  administered  during 
his  schoolmastership  of  fifty-one  years  and  seven 
months,  91 1,527  strokes  of  the  cane  and  124,000  of 
the  rod  ;  also  20,989  blows  with  the  ruler ;  not  only 
10,235  boxes  on  the  ear,  but  also  7,905  tugs  at  the 


254         Th(^  Progress  of  General  Edtieation. 

same  member;  and  a  sum  total  of  1,115,800  blows 
with  the  knuckles  on  the  head.  He  imposed  be- 
sides 22,763  fines  in  the  shape  of  chapters  in  the 
Bible  and  catechism  and  parts  of  grammar  to  be 
learned  by  heart.  He  threatened  1,707  children 
who  did  not  receive  it,  made  'j'j'j  kneel  upon  round 
hard  peas  and  631  upon  a  sharp-edged  piece  of 
wood,  to  which  are  to  be  added  a  corps  of  5,001 
riders  on  the  wooden  horse.  Such  was  the  treat- 
ment of  scholars  by  John  Jacob  Hauberle,  who 
thought  the  floggings  the  children  received  of  suf- 
ficient importance  to  keep  account.  What  must 
have  been  the  treatment  of  helpless  children  at  the 
hand  of  less  scrupulous  teachers? 

To  Lord  Brougham  belongs  the  glory  to  have 
aroused  the  Parliament  of  England  by  his  position, 
his  learning,  his  eloquence,  his  humanity  and  states- 
manship to  the  danger  that  threatened  the  country 
from  the  gross  ignorance  of  its  population  ;  and 
mainly  through  his  exertions  a  Committee  of  the 
House  of  Commons  to  inquire  into  the  educational 
condition  of  London,  Westminster  and  Southwark, 
was  appointed  in  18 16.  In  181 8  Mr.  Brougham's 
Committee  on  the  Education  of  the  People  gener- 
ally, was  appointed.  In  1820  his  first  bill  was 
brought  before  Parliament.  In  1834  the  first  Par- 
liamentary vote  for  Education  was  passed,  and  a 
select  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  ap- 


TJie  Progress  of  General  Education.        255 

pointed  to  inquire  into  the  means  for  establishing 
a  national  system  of  Education.  In  1836  the  first 
Parliamentary  vote  was  passed  for  the  erection  of 
schools  of  design,  and  from  this  time  one  Parlia- 
mentary act  after  another  laid  vividly  hold  upon 
general,  industrial,  scientific  and  art  Education,  until 
the  most  comprehensive  of  all,  the  Elementary  Act 
of  Education,  passed  in  1870. 

As  late  as  1850  half  of  the  people  of  England 
and  Wales  were  illiterate,  and  half  the  children 
were  without  school  attendance.  The  teachers 
were  poor,  miserable  men,  not  to  be  trusted  with 
the  commonest  work.  The  schools  were  kept  in 
unwholesome  cellars  and  garrets,  without  maps, 
blackboards,  books,  apparatus  or  playgrounds,  and, 
of  course,  without  rooms  for  classification.  Many 
parishes  were  without  any  schools  at  all.  Among 
the  teachers  we  find  blacksmiths,  tailors,  colliers, 
cooks,  hatters,  hucksters,  some  of  them  continuing 
their  trade. 

The  noise  in  these  school  rooms  was  usually  such 
that  a  person  could  not  hear  what  was  said.  These 
wretched,  miserable  schools,  with  a  few  worm-eaten 
benches  and  tables  for  their  furniture,  were  often 
hovels  in  ruins  or  over  stables,  with  small  windows, 
poorly  lighted,  with  damp  earth  for  their  floor ; 
and  among  692  of  these  schools,  364  had  not  as 
much    accommodation    as    anything  in   the    shape 


256        The  Progress  of  General  Education. 

of  a   privy.     Parliamentary  grants  for    Education 
were  for  the  primary  department  in 

1833 $100,000 

1840 150,000 

1850 900,000 

1862 3,873,715 

1870 4,573-605 

1872 7,757,800 

In  France,  of  38,000  communities,  14,000  were  in 
1833  without  schools  ;  in  1870  only  800  very  small 
communities  were  without  schools.  In  1832  one- 
sixth  of  the  French  people  were  educated.  In 
1856  almost  one-half  of  the  people  were  educated. 
Upon  10,000  in  the  army  of  France  could  read  in 


1828  . 

.     3,518  men  from  21-40  years  old, 

1846  . 

.     5,331 

i860  . 

.     7,000 

The  primary  department  in  France  counted  in 

1830 *i  ,000,000  scholars. 

1848 3,530,135 

1850 3,784,710 

1868 4,442,421    " 

The   appropriations  for    primary  instruction    in 
Paris  were  in 

1852 1,300,000  francs. 

1859     .......     1,700,000      " 

1866 5,207,000      " 


The  Progress  of  General  Education.       257 

In  1862,  France  had  1,833  school  libraries,  in  1866 
it  had  10,243  ! 

Belgium  had  in  1830,  293,000  children  in  the  pri- 
mary department;  in  1848  it  had  462,000  in  the 
same  department. 

The  progress  of  Education  in  the  past  and  pres- 
ent is  very  much  the  same  everywhere,  and  not 
only  proves  that  the  world  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  its  improvement  must  come  from  the  school ; 
it  also  shows  that  if  the  misery  of  the  masses  has 
been  very  great  hitherto,  so  has  been  the  neglect 
of  their  Education.  It  further  proves  that  scholars 
and  philosophers,  while  they  indulge  in  the  delights 
of  the  intellect  and  the  imagination,  are,  as  a  rule, 
to  their  own  reproach,  unconcerned  about  the  bru- 
tality, ignorance  and  misery  of  the  masses.  But 
the  weightiest  lesson  of  all  is  that  private  means 
and  efforts  are  insufficient  to  provide  for  the  Edu- 
cation of  the  masses.  England,  with  its  state 
church,  and  mutually  jealous  sects  and  its  public- 
spirited  men  of  wealth,  proved  by  the  miserable 
failure  they  made  of  the  Education  of  the  people, 
that  the  power  and  wisdom  of  the  state  alone  are 
to  be  trusted  with  this  great  work  and  responsi- 
bility. 

The  more  the  masses  equal  in  moral  and  intel- 
lectual grasp  the  rest  of  society,  the  more  it  must 
be  admitted  that  they  cire  the  most  important  fac- 


258         TJie  Progress  of  General  Education. 

tor  in  the  production  of  wealth,  and  are,  therefore, 
entitled  to  the  best  wealth  can  give — a  good  and 
substantial  Education  ;  and  this  is  also  all  they  can 
claim  from  the  state  without  detriment  to  them- 
selves and  without  confusion  of  ideas  and  princi- 
ples ;  and  whoever  endeavors  to  deprive  them  of 
that,  under  whatsoever  pretext — public  economy, 
or  what  not — his  name  ought  to  be  loathed  as  that 
of  Arnold,  the  traitor. 

Reforms  should  commence  so  imperceptibly  as  to 
be  sure  to  escape  the  opposition  of  opinions  and 
things,  and  the  capital  invested  in  them  should  only 
grow  with  our  experience  in  managing  them.  We 
should  then  be  sure  of  meeting  with  success  and 
of  finding  imitators.  "  Do  not  pitch  your  improve- 
ments too  high,"  is  the  instruction  of  the  Prussian 
Minister  to  his  Commissioner  of  Education. 

Connecticut  feels  the  necessity  of  combining  in- 
dustrial training  with  school  Education,  as  the  peo- 
ple in  many  localities  visibly  suffer  from  want  of 
occupation,  and  she  refuses  $100,000  of  a  testator, 
bequeathed  for  the  purpose  of  inaugurating  that 
improvement,  as  the  committee  appointed  for  the 
investigation  of  that  matter  reports  an  industrial 
school  requires  a  capital  of  $500,000. 

We  should  open  our  industrial  school  with  two 
dozens  of  needles,  a  half  a  dozen  spools  of  cotton 
and  sixty  yards  of  muslin  ;  and  if,  in  an  evil  hour, 


The  Progress  of  General  Education.        259 

we  should  allow  our  ambition  to  run  away  with  us, 
we  might  open  in  two  branches  at  a  time,  and  put 
into  the  students'  hands  two  dozens  of  knives,  and 
commence  wood  carving  with  a  stock  of  200  square 
feet  of  walnut  lumber.  Anyhow,  we  should  begin 
with  a  capital  of  not  over  $50,  and  be  sure  of  suc- 
cess ;  but  the  Connecticut  industrial  school  cannot 
start  on  less  than  $500,000 ! 

Our  philosophy  as  how  to  open  industrial  schools 
applies  to  infant  schools,  obligatory  evening  schools 
and  every  new  movement. 

Train  the  children  to  profitable  employment,  and 
every  parent  will  hurry  his  children  to  school  and 
keep  them  there,  until  the  morals  of  the  school 
accompanying  the  work  of  the  muscles  will  become 
assimilated,  fixed,  organic  and  hereditary. 

The  cultivation  and  improvement  of  the  few 
favorably  situated  for  a  time  is  lost  with  their  op- 
portunities in  the  unimproved  masses  in  which  they 
soon  sink  back  ;  only  the  culture  and  improvement 
of  the  whole  people  can  become  hereditary ;  and, 
hence,  Race  Education,  or  Hereditary  Culture,  im- 
plies universal  culture. 

Luther,  the  reformer  of  the  schoolhouse  as  well 
as  of  the  Church,  and  Pestalozzi,  are  beginning  to 
tell  on  Germany. 

After  the  Austrian  defeat  at  Sadowa,  a  high 
Prussian    official    having    been    asked,    "  Who  was 


26o        The  Progress  of  General  Edueation. 

your  biggest  general?"  answered,  "The  school- 
master." 

It  was  the  lack  of  this  sort  of  general  that  beat 
France.  The  Polytechnic  Institute  of  France  is 
the  best  in  Europe — its  primary  instruction  is  the 
poorest. 

The  Protestant  leaders,  as  early  as  1560,  asked 
for  an  obligatory  school  law  ;  they  were  crushed  ; 
and  to-day,  after  three  hundred  years,  the  French 
government  is  still  wrangling  over  such  a  law.  Ger- 
many, having  taken  possession  of  Elsace  and  Lor- 
raine, March  i,  1871,  introduced  compulsory  school 
attendance  the  i8th  of  the  following  month,  and 
made  an  annual  school  appropriation  of  6,562,427 
francs.  The  French  government,  under  the  Res- 
tauration,  made  an  annual  appropriation  of  50,000 
francs  for  the  primary  Education  of  the  whole  of 
France. 

That  England  appropriated  for  primary  instruc- 
tion in  1 841,  $150,000,  and  in  1872,  $7,757,800,  and 
France,  in  1828,  for  the  primary  instruction  of  the 
nation  50,000  francs,  while  Paris  appropriated  for 
the  primary  instruction  of  its  own  population  in 
1873,  11,132,046  francs,  is  a  guarantee  of  progress 
and  gives  us  faith  in  the  future  of  humanity. 

Prussia,  with  12,256,725  population,  ha3  already 
in  1825,  21,623  primary  free  schools,  with  25,000 
teachers  and  1,664,218  scholars  under  attendance, 


Cost  of  Education  ajid  of  Crime.  261 

while  England,  as  late  as  1841,  had  an  annual  ap- 
propriation of  $50,000  for  the  primary  schools  of 
the  whole  country ;  and,  as  a  natural  consequence, 
expended  during  the  same  period  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  crime,  $3,224,845. 

COST   OF   EDUCATION   AND   OF   CRIME. 

An  Education  that  trains,  teaches  and  fits  us  for 
usefulness  from  our  earliest  childhood  may  be  ex- 
pensive. But  is  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  drunkards, 
as  many  criminals,  paupers  and  defectives,  less  so  ? 
A  half  a  million  of  men  consume,  waste,  depre- 
date and  not  only  produce  nothing,  but  absorb  the 
labor  of  one  army  watching  them,  and  of  another 
that  is  administering  to  their  vicious  propensities 
in  a  hundred  thousand  haunts  of  vice,  shame  and 
drunkenness  !  The  wages  of  these  idlers,  at  the 
low  rate  of  $1  per  day,  would  amount  to  $150,- 
000,000  per  annum.  But  the  difference  between 
the  production  of  a  nation  of  forty  million  indus- 
trially and  morally  trained  and  one  that  is  without 
such  influence,  does  not  count  by  the  hundred,  but 
by  the  thousands  of  millions  ;  as  the  result  of  every 
producer  would  be  enhanced  by  increased  efficiency 
and  economy. 

The  habitual  criminals,  of  whom  we  have  about 
40,000  in  our  state  prisons,  cost  the  state  each,  for 
detection,    apprehension,    conviction    and    mainte- 


262  Cost  of  Education  and  of  Crime. 

nance,  $500.  The  depredations  of  each,  during  an 
average  criminial  career  of  five  years  and  a  half, 
amount  to  $2,750,  which  gives  a  total  cost  to  so- 
ciety of  $1 30,000,000.  Drunkenness  costs  the  nation 
four  and  five  times  as  much,  and  the  same  may  be 
said  of  the  idle  pauper  class  and  the  defectives. 
For  pauperism  and  its  misery  nearly  double  the 
rate  of  death  and  disease  in  the  land.  But  we  may 
multiply  tenfold  the  damage  to  the  nation  from 
pauperism,  drunkenness,  crime  and  every  sort  of 
defectiveness,  and  these  miseries  assume  vaster  pro- 
portions still,  as  they  are  hereditary  and  multiply 
with  every  generation  in  a  geometrical  ratio. 

The  Juke  family  thus  yielded  in  seventy -five 
years  in 

Adult  paupers 280 

Criminals  and  offenders 140 

Habitual  thieves 60 

Common  prostitutes 50 

Women  specifically  diseased  ....  40 
Men  contaminated  by  these  women     .  400 
Aggregate  of  children  who  died  pre- 
maturely    300 

Cost  of  crime,  pauperism,  depredation, 
premature  death,  specific  disease  and 
loss  of  wages,  etc $1,308,000 

This  is  the  fruit  borne  by  the  cheap  Education 
of  a  family  of  four  sisters  in  the  State  of  New  York 
during  seventy-five  years. 


Does  Every  Education  Prevent  Pauperism  ?    263 

Charles  L.  Brace  has  proved  the  wholesome  influ- 
ence of  industrial  schools  on  crime.  But  does  our 
common  Education  prevent  crime? 

The  criminal  class  is,  naturally  enough  among 
other  things,  also  illiterate ;  but,  certainly  reading 
and  writing  have  in  themselves  but  little  restrain- 
ing power  over  crime.  Prof.  John  W.  Draper,  who 
is  very  guarded  in  his  statements,  positively  asserts 
in  his  treatise  on  Physiology,  that  our  common 
Education  has  rather  the  reverse  tendency.  The 
same  position  has  been  taken  by  Herbert  Spencer 
and  other  investigators. 

DOES  EVERY  EDUCATION  PREVENT  PAUPERISM? 

It  has  equally  been  established  beyond  a  doubt, 
that  a  common  school  Education  is  not  proof 
against  pauperism.  Thus,  the  counties  lying  be- 
tween London  and  the  south  coast  of  England 
are  by  far  less  illiterate  than  the  North  Midland 
counties,  and  have  yet  a  great  deal  more  of  pau- 
perism. 

Only  an  Education  that  develops  from  early  in- 
fancy all  the  powers  of  body  and  mind,  fosters 
good  habits,  imparts  practical  information  and 
trains  men  to  active  and  skilled  industry,  is  a 
preventive  against  pauperism  and  crime ;  and,  in 
fact,  against  every  other  deviation  from  the  normal 
type  of  humanity. 


264  Intellectual  Pleasures. 

It  is  time  the  sham  of  our  illiteracy  statistics 
be  made  clear  to  the  comprehension  of  everybody. 
The  fact  that  most  of  paupers  and  criminals  cannot 
read  and  write  is  used  as  a  conclusive  argument, 
that  all  Education  has  to  do  to  diminish  pauperism 
and  crime  is  to  teach  people  how  to  read  and  write. 
In  truth,  however,  illiteracy  is  not  the  cause  of 
pauperism  and  crime ;  but,  like  pauperism  and 
crime,  it  is  a  symptom  of  want,  misery  and  a  gen- 
eral deterioration  and  degradation,  which  are  the 
real  causes  of  illiteracy  as  well  as  of  crime. 

The  detection  of  this  fallacy  is  of  vast  impor- 
tance, for  it  teaches  us  that  to  impart  a  knowledge 
of  reading  and  writing  does  not  touch  the  cause  of 
pauperism  and  crime.  To  effect  this,  we  must  re- 
move want,  misery  and  congenital  deterioration, 
which  can  only  be  brought  about  by  the  prevention 
of  the  development  of  inherited  evil  tendencies 
through  correct  early  training  in  infant  schools 
and  the  cherishing  of  active  habits  in  the  industrial 
school,  developing  skill  and  capacity,  promoting 
well-being,  health  and  comfort,  where  degraded 
tendencies,  left  to  themselves,  would  have  produced 
want,  misery  and  degradation. 

IN'TKLLECTUAL    PLEASURES. 

An  increased  outlay  and  effort  for  educating  the 
masses  is  our  greatest  security  for  the  future.     It 


Education  and  the  State.  265 

has  long  ago  been  observed  by  prominent  econo- 
mists, whenever  intellectual  pleasures  are  in  the 
ascendant,  civilization  progresses,  and  when  sen- 
sual pleasures  predominate,  civilization  is  on  the 
wane.  It  certainly  shows  in  our  favor  that  we 
spend  a  hundred  and  fifty  millions  per  annum  for 
the  culture  of  the  young,  and,  besides  this,  vast 
sums  taken  out  of  the  fund  of  material  gratification, 
lessen  by  so  much  luxury,  ruinous  by  its  effeminat- 
ing tendency,  and  add  so  much  to  the  virtue,  force, 
intelligence  and  efficiency  of  the  next  generation. 

Water,  air  and  earth  make  the  wheat  and  cotton 
plant,  which,  in  their  turn,  are  made  into  food  and 
clothing.  So  does  under  the  process  of  an  advanc- 
ing civilization  matter  enter  into  the  production 
of  mind.  Our  spiritual  wants  increase  daily,  and 
their  satisfaction  is  attended  with  least  waste.  One 
loaf  can  feed  but  one  stomach,  and  one  coat  can 
cover  but  one  back ;  but  one  idea  may  feed  a  thou- 
sand minds.  The  production  of  mind  is,  therefore, 
the  most  profitable  investment,  and  the  progress 
of  the  race,  of  manufactures  and  of  values  lead  all 
to  it,  and,  hence,  our  increased  educational  efforts. 

EDUCATION   AND   THE   STATE. 

Lycurgus  has  already  said,  the  business  of  the 
legislator  resolves  itself  into  the  bringing  up  of 
youth. 


266       Education  and  our  Financial  Crisis. 

Plato  has  said,  man  cannot  propose  a  higher  and 
hoHer  object  for  his  study  than  Education  and  all 
that  appertains  to  it. 

Nothing,  says  Auguste  Comte,  can  give  stabil- 
ity to  a  government  but  a  great  principle,  to  which 
under  every  change  or  revolution  of  opinion  all  the 
people  will  hold  and  around  which  they  will  rally  ; 
and  an  Education  that  will  teach  them  the  submis- 
sion of  their  desires  to  the  will  of  all. 

Race  Education,  or  the  subordination  of  the  indi- 
vidual in  each  and  every  act  to  the  race,  gives  us 
the  principle  and  the  Education,  which  of  all  others 
trains  for  this  wholesome  subordination. 

"  It  is  most  natural  for  the  individual,"  says  Aris- 
totle, "to  be  educated  for  the  nation,  of  which  he 
is  but  a  part,  as  the  limb  is  of  the  body  and  for  the 
body."  We  admit  the  criticism,  that  antiquity 
sunk  the  individual  in  the  state.  But  do  we  not 
fall  in  the  opposite  vice,  and  err  on  the  side  of 
meanness,  as  the  ancients  did  on  the  side  of  noble- 
ness, by  running  individuality  into  consummate 
selfishness?  Race  Education  deepens  and  unites 
both  elements  in  educating  the  individual  for  the 
race. 

EDUCATION   AND   OUR   FINANCIAL  CRISIS. 

Too  dull  and  listless  to  learn  in  the  school  of 
thought,  nature's  laws  will  make  themselves  heard 


Education  and  our  Financial  Crisis.        267 

at  last  by  speaking  to  us  in  pinching  want,  ruin, 
misery  and  bitter  disappointment  attending  the 
upheaval  of  commercial  crashes,  and,  at  last,  in 
revolutions  and  national  ruin. 

Witness  our  present  crisis,  aggravated  by  our 
false  Education.  War  has  demoralized  the  indus- 
trial habits  of  the  land ;  the  late  discontent  of  labor 
has  materially  lessened  its  results,  and  production 
was  thus  doubly  cut  short ;  still  mislead  by  an  in- 
flated currency,  the  people  were  sure  of  getting  rich, 
and  spent  more  than  ever.  How  could  we  but  get 
poor,  losing  at  both  ends  by  a  decreased  produc- 
tion, and  an  increased  consumption  when  labor 
and  saving  are  the  only  sources  of  wealth  ?  From 
the  firing  of  the  first  gun  at  Sumter  we  got  poorer 
as  a  nation,  as  we  produced  less,  or  what  we  pro- 
duced were  not  means  for  further  production,  but 
destruction.  We  were  piling  up  fences,  farm  imple- 
ments and  the  wealth  of  cities  and  states,  and  made 
of  it  a  great  and  fearful  conflagration.  And  even 
this  is  not  all ;  we  destroyed  a  mijlion  of  producers, 
made  the  living  worthless  through  habits  contracted 
in  the  camp  or  the  extravagance  and  the  gambling 
spirit  at  home.  What  a  strange  way  of  getting 
rich !  From  Adam  Smith  down  to  Mill,  McLoid, 
Jevons  and  Cary,  economists  have  taught  us  dif- 
ferently. 

When  we  felt  flush,  the  crash  was  coming;  for 
we  were  indulging  in  a  dangerous  delusion. 


268        Education  and  our  Financial  Crisis. 

Our  future  will  never  be  secure  until  our  children 
are  trained  from  their  fourth  to  their  seventh  year 
to  be  active,  skilful  and  creative,  and  thus  a  last- 
ing foundation  for  industrious  and  moral  habits  be 
laid  ;  then  to  their  twelfth  or  thirteenth  year  they 
must  be  intellectually  trained  and  instructed,  and 
after  that  to  their  eighteenth  year  industrial  em- 
ployment must  be  combined  with  the  highest  tech- 
nical and  scientific  instruction. 

We  are  wofully  deficient  in  industrial  and  moral 
habits,  as  also  in  the  knowledge  of  the  plainest 
printiples  of  economy.  We  have  to  overcome  the 
financial  fiction  of  honestly  getting  something  out 
of  nothing,  when,  in  fact,  labor  and  saving  are  the 
only  factors  in  the  production  of  wealth. 

If  we  bring  up  our  children  for  work,  we  bring 
them  up  for  the  country  and  for  the  production  and 
the  cheapening  of  the  first  necessaries  of  life,  the 
increase  of  which  increases  the  well-being  of  the 
masses.  If  we  raise  them  for  idleness,  we  raise  them 
for  the  city  and  for  chance  stakes,  which  tend  to 
unprincipled  transactions.  It  is  the  lack  of  the 
element  of  work  in  the  popular  Education  that 
swells  the  movement  of  the  population  toward 
the  great  cities,  where  everybody  fishes  for  his 
prize,  and  one  wins  while  a  hundred  sink  beneath 
the  wave. 

Our   Education   is  at  best   a  hunt  for  charming 


The  School  the  Miniature  of  the  World.     269 

information,  but  the  power  of  producing  our  nec- 
essaries to  sustain  life  must  precede  the  delightful. 
Our  defeats  as  our  victories  come  from  the  school- 
master, and  the  school  is  at  the  bottom  of  our 
financial  disasters.  "Nonsense,"  says  my  critic, 
"it  is  the  time."  But,  pray,  who  makes  the  time 
but  we,  and  who  made  us  but  the  school? 

ERAS   OF  CIVILIZATION. 

Our  present  development  of  the  understanding 
must  be  followed  by  the  reign  of  reason,  as  it  has 
been  preceded  by  the  dominion  of  the  imagination. 

The  creation  of  language  and  the  fine  arts  formed 
the  dawn  of  civilization ;  now  science  absorbs  the 
age.  Only  the  perfect  state  is  the  consummation 
of  the  highest  reason. 

THE   SCHOOL  THE   MINIATURE   OF  THE  WORLD. 

It  need  not  be  repeated  that  to  instruct  is  not 
to  educate.  But  it  is  not  enough  realized  that 
knowledge  is  not  always  saving,  and  that  the  down- 
fall of  empires  has  mostly  been  attended  by  sub- 
tlety of  intellect  and  universal  skepticism. 

To  educate  the  young  is  to  make  them  live  long 
enough  the  life  we  wish  them  to  live,  that  they 
may  continue  it  from  habit.  It  is  not  to  show 
them  at  a  distance  the  way  they  are  to  walk  in, 
but   to  train  them   in  it.     The  school  must  be  a 


270  The  Half-hour  School  System. 

miniature  of  the  world  with  all  its  work  and  duties, 
in  which  the  young  must  be  exercised.  And  this 
simultaneous  training  of  every  part  of  man's  nature 
is  the  more  necessary  as  each  has  its  modifying  in- 
fluence on  the  other,  and  none  can  be  cultivated 
to  advantage  separately. 

THE   PERIOD   OF  CRIME   AND   OF  EDUCATION. 

The  greater  amount  of  crime  is  committed  be- 
tween the  ages  of  twenty  and  thirty  years.  By 
increasing  the  industrial  usefulness  of  Education, 
which  enables  scholars  to  support  themselves, 
parents  are  more  induced  to  send  their  children 
early,  long  and  continuously  to  school  than  by 
compulsory  school  laws,  and  thus  prolonged  school 
attendance  influencing  those  years  of  vicious  ten- 
dencies, will  lessen  crime  by  one-half. 

THE   HALF-TIME     SCHOOL   SYSTEM. 

Race  Education  divides  the  scholar's  time  be- 
tween instruction  and  industrial  training,  which  is 
acknowledged  to  yield  better  results  than  the  long 
hours  of  our  common  schools,  in  which,  however 
much  talking  the  teacher  may  do,  the  jaded  scholar 
receives  but  little. 

The  half-time  system,  not  interfering  with  the 
acquisition  of  a  trade,  enables  the  student  to  pro- 
long his  period  of  Education,  to  become  acquainted 


Our   Wordy  Education.  271 

with  the  theoretical  acquirements  of  his  especial 
trade  and  their  use ;  and  having  for  years  combined 
work  with  study,  his  success  as  an  artisan  and  in- 
ventor is  assured. 

The  leading  educators  of  England  agree  with 
Mr.  Chadwick  in  pronouncing  short  school  hours 
a  success ;  that  prolonged  attention  is  impossible 
for  a  young  child ;  that  school  hours  are  wasted 
because  they  make  impossible  demands  upon  a 
child's  immature  powers ;  that  short  lessons,  with 
bodily  work,  produce  better  intellectual  results  than 
lessons  twice  as  long,  without  the  relief  bodily  exer- 
cise gives  to  the  mind. 

Dr.  Norris  says,  before  the  British  Association, 
he  has  confronted  this  subject  on  all  its  sides,  and 
found  that  children  who  studied  half  the  school 
hours,  and  worked  the  other  half  of  the  day,  stud- 
ied and  worked  more  efficiently  than  children  who 
worked  or  studied  all  the  time. 

OUR   WORDY   EDUCATION. 

Let  our  scholars  have  less  to  do  with  words,  the 
shadows  of  things,  and  more  with  the  things  them- 
selves, and  they  will  prove  as  energetic  and  success- 
ful as  our  self-made  men.  Teachers  and  parents 
often  think  that  children  must  learn  all  the  words 
Johnson,  Walker,  Richardson,  Worcester  and  Web- 
ster did  not  know  how  to  spell  and   pronounce ; 


2/2  Education  and  hidustrial  Labor. 

that  they  must  know  by  heart  every  third  and 
fourth  rate  river  in  Africa,  soon  to  be  forgotten ; 
and  that  their  heads  must  be  filled  with  Rs,  Xs  and 
Ys  until  they  are  turned  themselves  into  unknown 
quantities. 

Who  will  deliver  us  from  the  yoke  of  the  letter, 
and  permit  us  once  more  to  have  a  soul  and  to  act 
an  honest  part  in  the  world ! 

Our  schools  teach  too  much,  educate  not  enough 
and  train  men  for  labor  not  at  all. 

Our  information  is  too  general,  which  means  es- 
pecial ignorance  as  far  as  accomplishing  anything 
in  particular  is  concerned.  We  want  science  adoing, 
as  life  and  nature  are.  The  word  must  become  flesh, 
and  not  the  flesh  word,  says  Richter. 

EDUCATION   AND   INDUSTRIAL   LABOR. 

Locke  treats  what  the  schools  call  learning  in 
comparison  with  physical,  mental  and  moral  habits 
with  a  most  hearty  contempt.  How  strenuously 
this  philosopher,  eminent  above  all  others  for  his 
great  good  sense,  insisted  upon  combining  one  or 
several  mechanical  pursuits  with  intellectual  Edu- 
cation even  in  the  highest  classes  of  society,  of 
which  practice  he  cites  many  examples  among  the 
ancients.  Cato  and  Cincinnatus  were  but  illustra- 
tions of  what  was  most  common  among  the  great 
men  of  Rome.     Spinoza  does  not  stand  alone  in 


Education  and  Industrial  Labor.  273 

modern  time.  Luther  made  a  good  hand  in  several 
trades,  so  did  the  great  Lord  Brougham,  and  so  did 
other  men  of  Hke  eminence. 

Industrial  universities,  receiving  their  pupils  from 
industrial  common  schools,  would  be  of  infinite 
more  advantage  to  the  country  than  our  present 
colleges  with  their  Latin  and  Greek  pretences.  It 
is  the  Central  College  of  Arts  and  Manufactures  at 
Paris,  the  pupils  of  which  are  in  great  demand 
among  the  manufacturers  of  France. 

But  not  only  Locke,  the  father  of  the  modern 
sensational  school,  but  as  we  have  seen  Leibnitz, 
the   author  of  the   monadology,   and   Fichte,   the 
transcendentalist,    all    equally    insisted    upon    the 
necessity  of  joining  handicraft  to  mental  culture. 
Froude,  the  realistic  historian,  instills  the  same  les- 
son.   And  our  own  great  dead  of  but  yesterday,  was 
not  his  parting  tragic  enough,  that  we  so  soon  for- 
get his  life  and  his  teachings  ?     The  destruction  of 
slave  labor  was  but  half  of  Mr.  Greeley's  lesson. 
The  union  of  Education  with  free  labor  was  the 
other  and  more  important  half;  and  half  the  utter- 
ances of  his  life  we  should  have  to  cite  were  we  to 
repeat  all  he  so  forcibly  said  upon  this  score. 

Solon  made  labor  binding  upon  all  men;  our 
Puritan  fathers  legislated  it ;  philosophers  of  all 
schools  enforced  it ;  Germany,  and  all  Europe,  more 
or  less,  introduced  it   in   its  schools  more  than  a 


12' 


274  Education  and  Industrial  Labor. 

hundred  years  ago.  We  may  turn  a  deaf  ear  to 
the  teachings  of  lawgivers  and  philosophers  of 
other  nations  and  our  own,  but  the  ruin  of  our 
industries,  labor  failing  to  feed  the  people,  and 
giving  way  to  dishonesty,  corruption  and  anarchy 
will  at  last  force  us  to  concede  to  labor  its  place  in 
the  Education  of  the  people. 

Labor,  says  De  Gerando,  is  the  great  educator. 
Labor  means  wealth,  power  and  civilization.  La- 
bor means  character,  duty  and  nobleness.  Labor 
prevents  disorder,  ennui  and  dissipation  ;  it  inures 
to  action  and  usefulness.  It  is  a  school  of  sobriety, 
cultivates  attention,  perseverance,  precision  and 
method.  It  allays  the  passions  and  brings  inward 
peace  and  health  to  the  soul.  Labor  gives  vigor,  a 
sense  of  dignity  and  the  power  of  self-restraint. 
It  restrains  inordinate  ambition,  and  accustoms  us 
to  estimate  reality  above  empty  applause. 

All  honest  work,  says  John  Mill,  is  for  the  uni- 
versal good,  and  as  honorable  as  any  public  func- 
tion ;  and  by  doing  perfectly  whatever  we  do  we 
perfect  our  character. 

Froude  sets  handwork  before  headwork.  The 
first  business  of  Education,  he  says,  is  to  assist  us 
in  honestly  supporting  ourselves.  A  man  must 
work,  steal  or  beg.  The  practical  necessities  pre- 
cede the  intellectual.  As  long  as  society  does 
not    mind    the    common    wants    of  humanity  and 


Education  and  Industrial  Labor.  2'J^ 

give  this  sort  of  Education,  it  has  no  right  to  con- 
demn the  rogue  or  mendicant. 

Miss  Nightingale  has  well  said,  that  without  in- 
dustrial training  the  three  Rs  are  most  likely  end- 
ing in  a  fourth  R — Rascaldom. 

Mr.  Pearson,  in  his  report  before  the  House  of 
Lords,  says :  I  am  satisfied  that  the  cause  of  juve- 
nile crime  is  not  the  absence  of  Education,  and 
that  any  Education  of  the  children  of  the  laboring 
masses  unaccompanied  by  industrial  training  and 
actual  employment  in  manual  and  useful  labor, 
will  entirely  fail  in  checking  the  growth  of  crime. 

And  what  opportunities  have  the  people  for  en- 
gaging in  profitable  trades?  says  another  well-in- 
formed authority.  Owing  to  a  variety  of  circum- 
stances it  has  become  almost  impossible  to  procure 
for  children  such  educational  training  as  will  make 
them  skilful  artisans.  The  public  school  must  fit  for 
work.  European  nations  are  competing  in  estab- 
lishing schools  of  art,  and  we  must  shape  our  public 
schools  in  the  same  direction  or  fall  behind  the  civ- 
ilized world  in  our  industries.  European  countries 
swarm  with  schools  for  drawing  and  technical  train- 
ing. Little  Wurtemberg  alone  has  four  hundred 
drawing  schools.  The  United  Kingdom  has  eight 
hundred  schools  of  art.  Every  country  and  every 
great  city  in  Europe  has  a  grand  school  of  arts  and 
industries.     Whatever  time  and  expense  has  been 


276  Education  and  Industrial  Labor. 

devoted  of  late  in  England  to  drawing  has  richly 
been  repaid  by  the  improved  industries. 

New  York,  Boston,  Philadelphia  and  a  few  more 
cities  have  a  few  such  schools  as  any  German  prov- 
ince is  swarming  with. 

The  Superintendent  of  Education  of  the  State 
of  Rhode  Island  says,  our  motto  should  be  "  the 
best  Education  to  the  largest  number."  The  pres- 
ent course  of  study  is  arranged  for  those  who  intend 
to  complete  the  whole  course  in  the  high  school  and 
not  for  the  masses,  who  are  growing  up  in  igno- 
rance, vice  and  youthful  crimes,  which  multiply  in 
a  geometrical  ratio. 

Hundreds  of  orphan  asylums,  industrial  schools 
and  reformatories,  in  which  many  industries  have 
for  years  been  successfully  taught,  prove  the  prac- 
ticability and  utility  of  teaching  and  training  the 
masses  in  skilled  labor.  Massachusetts  has  the 
honor  of  having  passed  an  act  in  1872  providing 
that  the  city  council  of  any  city  or  town  may  estab- 
lish and  maintain  industrial  schools  and  raise  the 
money  necessary  to  render  them  efficient,  and  pre- 
scribe the  arts,  trades  and  occupations  to  be  taught. 

The  Cooper  Institute  of  New  York  City,  founded 
by  the  munificence  of  the  eminently  good  and  wise 
Peter  Cooper,  with  more  than  two  thousand  stu- 
dents, mostly  mechanics,  crowding  its  courses  in 
engineering,  mining,  metallurgy,  analytical  and  syn- 


Education  and  Industrial  Labor.  277 

thetical  chemistry,  architectural  drawing  and  piac- 
tical  building,  schools  of  telegraphy,  wood-engiav- 
ing,  photography,  design  and  painting,  proves  the 
eagerness  of  the  public  to  benefit  by  schools  of  art 
and  industry,  and  is  a  reproach  to  public  remissness 
in  not  following  the  lead  of  this  great  benefactor 
in  giving  the  masses  in  similar  institutions  oppor- 
tunities for  combining  labor  with  study,  that  they 
may  rise  from  their  unprofitable  drudgery  to  re- 
munerative technic  art. 

The  Institute  of  Technology  at  Boston,  the 
Worcester  Institute  of  Industrial  Science  and  Cor- 
nell University,  under  the  able  lead  of  President 
White,  are  all  hopeful  illustrations  of  the  combina- 
tion of  labor  and  study. 

It  is  pleasant  to  mention  the  noble  beginnings 
made  by  the  Women's  Educational  and  Industrial 
Society  of  New  York  City,  who  train  and  instruct 
thousands  of  women  in  a  variety  of  occupations. 
Long  Island  has  a  Printers'  training  school.  The 
Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum  of  New  York  and  the 
Episcopal  Orphan  Home  of  Brooklyn  teach  several 
trades,  and  so  does  the  Wilson  Industrial  School 
of  New  York  to  girls,  the  Brooklyn  Female  Em- 
ployment Society  and  the  Young  Ladies'  Branch 
of  the  Women's  Christian  Association  completing 
the  list.  A  model  for  future  institutions  of  health- 
ful labor,   is  presented  to   us  by  Girard  College, 


2/8  Education  and  Industrial  Labor. 

with  its  extensive  arrangements  for  type-setting, 
printing,  book-binding,  type-casting,  stereotyping, 
turning,  carpentering,  photographing,  electroplat- 
ing, telegraphing  and  shoemaking. 

By  refusing  labor  a  place  in  the  Education  of 
the  masses,  we  practically  tell  them  "  we  will  not 
teach  you  anything  useful,  but  even  that  will  make 
you  paupers,  criminals  and  orphans,  and  soon 
enough  bring  you  to  our  industrial  pauper  schools, 
reformatories  and  orphan  asylums  where  you  shall 
be  taught  some  trade  or  other."  But  must  we 
burn  down  the  house  to  roast  the  pig?  Must  the 
people  pass  through  pauperism,  crime  and  orphan- 
age to  get  into  industrial  schools?  Would  it  not 
be  more  sage  to  engraft  industry  upon  our  public 
school  system,  and  rather  prevent  pauperism,  crime 
and  premature  orphanage  than  make  them  the 
bridge  to  industry? 

Women  suffering  nearly  twice  as  much  from  pov- 
erty than  men  prove  by  the  consequent  deteriora- 
tion of  the  race  the  failure  of  our  present  Education. 

As  long  as  in  the  absence  of  a  great  national 
system  of  Kindergartens  women  are  not  employed 
in  what  is  peculiarly  their  work — the  Education  of 
the  race — only  a  varied  industrial  Education  can 
save  them  from  being  crushed  by  a  competition 
they  are  bound  to  meet  with  in  a  few  overcrowded 
employments  open  to  them.     1^)'  gi\  ing  women  a 


Education  and  Industi'ial  Labor.  279 

reasonably  extended  industrial  Education,  we  cur- 
tail by  one-half  prostitution,  crime,  woman's  slavery 
to  man,  widowed  misery,  the  idiocy  of  orphans 
starving  with  their  pining  mothers  and  other  in- 
numerable evils,  all  flowing  from  woman's  help- 
lessness. 

A  proper  industrial  training  would  enable  woman 
to  provide  for  herself  and  for  those  depending  on 
her  whenever  she  should  be  thrown  upon  her  own 
resources. 

In  1859  women  in  New  York  City  made  and 
pressed  stylish  caps  for  two  shillings  per  dozen. 
In  London  about  the  same  time  fifty  thousand 
females  were  working  for  under  sixpence  per  day, 
and  above  one  hundred  thousand  for  under  one 
shilling  a  day.  Shirt-makers  made  a  dozen  shirts 
for  two  shillings.  Waistcoat-makers  earned  only 
from  three  to  four  shillings  a  week ;  workers  for 
the  army  clothiers  received  eight  cents  a  piece  for 
jackets  and  trousers,  earning  thereby  two  shillings 
a  week.  Shoe-binders  worked  eighteen  hours  a 
day,  and  earned  one  shilling  and  sixpence  a  week. 
The  mantilla-maker,  working  from  nine  in  the  morn- 
ing till  eleven  at  night,  made  four  shillings  and  six- 
pence a  week  in  the  busy  season. 

At  a  meeting  of  one  thousand  female  slop  work- 
ers in  England  the  curious  result  was  obtained,  that 
none  of  that   number  had   earned   more  than  five 


28o  Education  and  Industrial  Labor. 

shillings  a  week.  Ninety-nine  had  earned  only  one 
shilling,  and  two  hundred  and  thirty-three  had  had 
no  work  at  all  during  the  whole  of  the  week. 

In  1867,  the  New  York  World  informs  us,  there 
were  in  the  metropolis  70,000  women  and  girls, 
beside  domestics,  who  worked  for  their  living,  of 
whom  7,000  lived  in  cellars,  and  20,000  were  in  a 
constant  fight  with  starvation  and  pauperism.  Since 
i860  establishments  doubled  employing  these  hag- 
gard creatures  at  the  top  of  princely  merchant 
houses. 

The  New  York  Times  in  December,  1867,  informs 
us  of  thousands  of  women  in  the  city  working  from 
seven  in  the  morning  to  midnight  getting  seventy- 
two  cents  for  the  making  of  a  dozen  of  shirts.  Six 
cents  for  a  shirt !  And  pay  for  drawers,  undershirts 
and  blouses  in  proportion.  But  flannel  shirts  care- 
fully made  br(5ught  12^  cents  a  piece,  best  white 
shirts  87^  cents,  a  dozen  best  drawers  $1.25  a 
dozen.  A  soldier's  widow,  with  four  children  to 
support  was  getting  $4.50  for  embroidering  a  cloak, 
two  weeks  of  toiling !  the  cloak  selling  at  $50  to 
$75,  the  woman  being  told,  if  she  will  not  do  it 
plenty  others  will  do  it. 

The  average  labor  for  1866  was  for 

Cloak  makers $8.00  per  week. 

Shirt        "       9.00       " 

CuflF  and  collar  makers      .     .  S8.00  to  9.00        " 
Umbrella  "  ....       5.00        " 


Education  and  Industrial  Labor.  281 

Button  hole  makers 3.00  per  week. 

Fur-sewers $4.00  to  7.00        " 

Machine  operators   ....    4.00  to  S.oo        '* 

In  Boston  we  read  there  were  in  1868,  20,000 
■w  omen  working  at  starvation  rates,  8,000  workers 
at  20  to  25  cents  per  day,  12,000  workers  for  less 
than  50  cents,  and  even  at  these  rates  there  was 
little  work.  These  women  lived  at  times  on  one 
cracker  a  day  for  breakfast,  dinner  and  supper. 
American  wives  and  mothers  work  in  Boston  from 
dawn  to  dawn  to  get  one  mouthful  of  food,  making 
shirts  at  eight  cents  a  day !  Some  women  take 
shirts  at  50  cents  a  dozen,  and  operate  sewing- 
machines  at  $2.50  a  week.  Dr.  Dio  Lewis  says : 
"  These  operating  girls  run  the  machine  from  one 
and  a  half  to  two  years,  and  their  backs  give  out, 
and  their  spines  give  way.  When  they  give  out 
they  are  pretty  well  spoiled,  and  are  then  thrown 
out  to  pick  up  what  they  can  get,  until  God  in  his 
mercy  shall  take  them  hence." 

In  1868  one  of  the  best  informed  journals  reports, 
30,000  girls  struggled  in  New  York  City  with  star- 
vation and  cold,  six  cents  for  the  making  of  a  shirt 
and  furnishing  the  thread  ! 

In  1 869  the  New  York  Herald  writes  :  "  The  work- 
ing women  live  in  nasty  tenement  houses,  in  cellars 
unfit  for  human  habitation,  in  pools  of  foulness, 
where  every  impurity  is  matured,  and  every  vice 


282  Education  and  Industrial  Labor. 

flourishes,  with  no  air,  no  light,  a  rickety  bed,  a 
broken-down  stove  and  second-hand  cooking  uten- 
sils. Such  is  the  condition  of  75,000  working  wom- 
en in  New  York  City." 

A  room  of  12  by  14  feet,  ceiling  8  feet  high,  pay- 
ing $8  a  month  and  earning  $6  a  week,  working  on 
an  average  12  hours  a  day. 

The  Economist,  in  1869,  said:  "The  maximum 
average  of  female  labor  was  $5  per  week.  The  sur- 
geons of  Bellevue  and  other  hospitals,  who  investi- 
gated the  subject,  assert  that  much  of  the  sickness 
and  mortality  of  females  in  the  city  of  New  York 
results  from  insufficient  food  and  clothing,  exposure 
and  cold.  The  ranks  of  shame  and  death  are  re- 
cruited by  thousands  of  unfortunates,  who  would 
never  have  strayed  from  the  path  of  rectitude  if 
they  had  obtained  honest  employment." 

Does  all  this  not  loudly  call  for  an  industrial 
Education  ?  Is  it  a  wonder  that  with  such  mothers 
the  race  deteriorates?  Who  is  there  but  takes 
good  care  of  a  valuable  mare,  and  have  we  become 
so  debased  that  we  do  not  value  our  mothers  and 
our  race  as  much  as  a  farmer  does  his  stock  ? 

Woman  in  her  great  misery,  involving  the  ruin 
of  the  race — in  more  than  one  way — is  the  con- 
demnation of  our  impracticable  system  of  Educa- 
tion, which  does  nothing  for  the  preservation  of 
the  race  or  for  the  indiv  itlual,  and  the  stolid  iiidiffer- 


Education  and  bidiistrial  Labor.  283 

ence  of  which  for  human  weal  or  woe  betrays  an 
appalling  degree  of  barbarity. 

The  answer  of  Agesilaus,  the  Spartan  king,  upon 
the  question,  what  was  best  for  boys  to  learn  ? 
"  What  they  will  practice  when  they  will  be  grown 
to  be  men,"  is  as  sensible  to-day  as  it  was  then. 

The  masses  of  the  people  must  be  skilled  in  in- 
dustrial labor;  they  must  be  used  to  the  application 
of  knowledge*to  work  and  must  be  industrious,  and, 
hence,  the  importance  of  training  them  early  to 
these  requirements  of  their  mature  years. 

Nervousness  leading  to  a  variety  of  affections, 
ending  often  in  insanity,  is  one  of  the  most  serious 
symptoms  of  the  general  degeneracy  of  our  age ; 
and  all  great  physicians  pronounce  moderate  labor 
the  most  remedial  agent  in  cases  of  insanity.  Ca- 
banis  fully  proves  that  muscular  activity  lessens 
nervous  excitement ;  hence,  physical  labor  is  most 
wholesome  in  this  our  age  of  nervous  affections. 

The  fostering  of  honest  work  would  certainly 
have  a  good  effect  on  the  insanity  of  mammon 
worship  or  the  madness  of  speculation. 

The  life  and  motion  of  the  stars  is  kept  up  by 
the  opposing  centripetal  and  centrifugal  forces ; 
the  adjustment  of  the  iimer  and  outer  conditions 
is  maintained  in  organic  life  by  assimilation  and 
dispersion,  and  social  life  consists  in  progressive 
adaptation  and  conservative  institutions. 


284  Education  and  Indiistrid  Labor. 

The  conservatism  of  China  is  known,  so  is  its 
intellectual  culture.  The  code  of  the  Jews  is  "  study 
the  law  and  observe  it,"  which  includes  research 
and  steady  adherence.  And  both  these  nations 
have  outlived  all  others.  The  Romans  were  war- 
ring and  progressive  tribes ;  but,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  the  mothers  grown  up  under  the  shade  of 
domestic  habits,  had  charge  of  the  Education 
of  the  children,  and  supplied  it  with  the  conserva- 
tive element.  The  Greeks  conbined  the  culture 
of  the  physical  and  intellectual  element  as  no  other 
nation,  and,  hence,  their  perfect  health  and  beauty 
of  mind  and  body. 

The  hard  toiler  is  slow,  patient  and  conservative, 
while  the  student  is  progressive,  as  thought  will 
impatiently  outrun  the  slow  march  of  stubborn 
reality.  By  joining  study  with  labor,  we  combine 
the  spirit  of  progress,  development  and  adaptation 
with  the  spirit  of  conservatism,  both  so  necessary 
for  the  historic  development  of  a  nation. 

Nothing  but  the  union  of  intellectual  Education 
with  physical  labor  can  save  us  from  corruption  of 
every  sort  and  bring  us  back  to  the  perfect  culture 
and  natural  simplicity  of  the  Greeks.  Or,  is  there 
any  reason  to  contradict  the  statement,  that  with 
culture,  honest  labor  and  simple  living  the  simplic- 
ity of  the  Greeks  is  more  likely  to  come  than  with 
musty  Greek  grammars  and  dictionaries? 


Education  and  Industrial  Labor.  285 

Our  schools,  instead  of  developing  in  us  a  taste 
for  technical  pursuits  equal  to  that  by  which  Eng- 
land, Germany,  and,  above  all,  France  excel,  force 
us  to  speculate  on  each  other's  hide.  If,  of  a  hun- 
dred scholars  leaving  school,  ninety-five  engaged 
in  useful  work,  and  five  scrambled  for  the  profits 
of  their  labor,  that  might  do  ;  but  of  the  hundred, 
ninety-five  scramble  for  the  questionable  profits  of 
the  unwilling  labor  of  five,  and,  hence,  the  murder- 
ous competition,  which  leaves  the  five  and  ninety- 
five  dead  on  the  field. 

The  clergy  have  started  our  Latin  schools,  the 
commercial  classes  have  organized  our  grammar 
schools.  The  laboring  masses  of  to-day  call  for 
industrial  schools. 

The  famous  Dean  of  St.  Paul  says,  before  the 
British  Association  :  "  Whether  we  have  advanced 
as  far  as  we  wisely  may,  in  blending  the  useful 
with  the  ordinary  Education,  may  well  occupy  the 
thoughts  of  the  reflective  and  practical  men.  I 
am  at  a  loss  to  see,  why  exercise  of  the  faculties 
may  not  be  combined  with  what  will  be  applicable 
to  the  future  employment." 

Dr.  Fitch,  one  of  the  foremost  educators  of  Eng- 
land, says,  before  the  same  Association,  the  children 
of  the  masses  want  more  than  reading,  writing  and 
arithmetic ;  they  want  to  be  put  in  possession  of 
the  mechanic  arts ;  they  want  right  habits ;  they 


286  Education  and  Industrial  Labor. 

want  to  be  taught  to  think  about  their  work,  to 
feel  an  interest  in  inquiring  and  observing  for  them- 
selves, and  to  know  how  knowledge  is  acquired  and 
applied. 

We  badly  want  schools  and  appreciate  them ; 
but  they  must  not  devote  themselves  exclusively 
to  teaching  us  how  to  talk  about  things,  but  to  do 
the  things  and  do  them  rightly. 

We  appreciate  the  teacher's  difficult)'.  He  tries 
to  make  the  pupil  what  he  is  ;  and  as  he  is  an  ever- 
lasting talker,  talkers  he  will  make.  But  the  world 
is  getting  tired  of  words.  What  it  wants  is  doing, 
and  to  this  the  school  must  make  some  sort  of  an 
approach  or  the  world  will  stay  away  from  it. 

The  State  of  New  York  has  a  right  to  expect  a 
better  return  from  thirty  millions  school  property 
than  five  hours  spelling  and  geography  five  times  a 
week.  The  school  must  form  the  home  and  the 
shop  as  well  as  the  school  of  the  youth  of  the  land 
during  eight  or  nine  hours  of  the  day.  A  nutri- 
tious but  simple  meal,  not  costing  over  five  cents, 
a  simple  dress,  earnest  work  and  a  generous  conduct 
upon  the  playground  alone  can  educate  the  nation 
to  simplicity,  industry  and  universal  good-will. 
Moral  teachings,  enforced  by  such  habits,  must 
regenerate  the  nation  that,  though  young,  has  al- 
ready entered  upon  its  period  of  decadence. 

As  we  have  already  quoted,  learning  forms  our 


Education  and  Industrial  Labor.  287 

speeches,  but  habit  our  inclinations,  after  which 
our  actions  take.  Learning  is  not  the  end  of  man, 
for  we  can  but  little  know  at  best ;  character  and 
achievement,  or  what  we  are  and  what  we  accom- 
plish, are  much  more  important ;  and,  hence,  the 
organization  of  the  school  must  develop  our  nature 
in  infancy,  and  not  dismiss  us  until  we  are  ready 
to  do  our  work  in  the  world  intelligently.  The 
science  of  life  and  the  art  of  living  are  the  main 
object  of  Education,  as  leading  to  the  preservation 
and  improvement  of  the  race. 

Once  the  phenomena  of  nature  have  been  deemed 
unworthy  the  attention  of  the  schoolmen,  and  the 
fancies  of  men  have  been  dignified  with  the  name 
of  philosophy.  To-day  learned  men  have  but  half 
parted  with  their  conceit,  and  despise  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  common  things  of  the  world.  But 
who  can  take  an  intelligent  survey  of  the  inter- 
national exhibitions  of  the  world  without  being 
struck  with  the  amazing  variety  and  grandeur  of 
the  works  of  common  men  when  compared  with 
the  smallness  and  paltriness  of  the  most  elegant 
words  of  literature. 

What  is  Homer,  Virgil,  Horace,  Dante,  Milton 
or  Shakespeare  in  comparison  with  half  a  million 
of  intricate  mechanisms,  each  doing  the  work  of 
dozens  of  men,  and  one  hundred  million  articles  of 
use  and  beauty?     Well  may  Herbert  Spencer  say, 


288  Education  a)i.(  Industrial  Lalwr. 

what  is  stored  up  in  books  is  but  the  smallest  part 
of  the  knowledge  of  mankind. 

We  disavow  every  intention  of  disparaging  sci- 
ence, but  as  emphatically  declare  that  practical 
work,  which  has  furnished  science  with  the  great 
facts  underlying  it,  must  be  taken  again  into  the 
service  of  science  and  must  be  treated  more  gra- 
ciously by  the  new  mistress. 

Our  abstruse  scientific  treatises  may  be  excellent 
for  scientists ;  the  masses  who  must  work  must  be 
initiated  into  the  principles  of  science  by  studying 
and  working  them  out  in  their  application  to  indus- 
try. We  need  no  more  be  ashamed  of  affiliating 
the  school  with  the  workshop  than  with  old  dame 
nature.  To  be  plain,  the  school  must  become  con- 
siderably a  workshop,  in  spite  of  literary  fops  and 
word-mongers.  Science  and  life  will  be  gainers  by 
the  change. 

A  person  of  a  practical  turn  of  mind  may  not 
care  about  electricity,  caloric  or  the  common  prop- 
erties of  matter,  but  will  take  interest  in  electro- 
plating, the  steam  engine  and  the  strength  of 
building  materials. 

Let  every  school  district  have  a  library  not  of 
the  battles  of  England  or  the  wars  of  Rome,  but 
of  every  treatise  on  every  branch  of  industry  car- 
ried on  in  the  said  locality,  wilii  a  museum  contain- 
ing every  article  manufactured  in  different  countries 


Education  and  Industrial  Labor.  289 

and  ages  of  the  same  nature  and  the  tools  used  in 
the  process,  and  the  saloons  will  be  less  visited, 
and  inebriety  and  pauperism  will  receive  a  check, 
and  every  industry  flourish  as  never  before. 

From  our  primary  and  secondary  departments 
of  instruction  to  the  college  and  university  all  is 
verbal,  culminating  in  Latin  and  Greek,  which  is  a 
very  fraud,  not  one  in  ten  scholars  going  through 
them  ever  being  able  to  read  these  languages,  save 
the  few  text  books,  parrot-like  got  by  rote.  Every 
town  ought  to  have  its  industrial  schools,  every 
county  its  industrial  college,  every  State  its  indus- 
trial university,  and  the  whole  country  its  national 
academy  of  the  industrial  arts  and  sciences. 

The  whole  land  must  become  a  bee -hive,  in 
which  each  works  for  all,  and  all  work  for  each. 
Then,  and  only  then,  will  all  be  sound  in  body  and 
sound  in  mind,  sound  in  government,  sound  in 
finance  and  sound  all  over. 

Education  must  not  begin  and  end  in  generali- 
ties, but  must  branch  out  in  different  industrial 
institutions,  in  keeping  with  the  pursuits  of  the 
different  sections  of  the  country,  to  which  they 
must  give  a  higher  impetus. 

Since  religion  has  ceased  to  be  a  state  power, 
binding  men's  consciences  and  hands,  too,  a  ra- 
tional discipline  must  school  men  from  very  child- 
hood up  in  useful  activity  and  severe  simplicity. 
13 


290  Education  and  Iiiilidiriiil  Labor. 

The  industrial  training  of  a  long  line  of  genera- 
tions must  become  an  instinct  with  the  race.  Pro- 
duction is  characteristic  of  civilized,  as  destructive- 
ness  is  of  savage  life,  and  our  social  instincts  make 
daily  more  the  preservation  of  the  race  as  dear  to 
us  as  the  preservation  of  our  own  life.  Only  when 
the  world  will  be  all  work,  will  vice,  fraud  and  war, 
and  every  other  species  of  wrong  and  oppression, 
disappear  from  among  men. 

Let  any  one  judge  in  the  light  of  the  recognized 
principle,  that  Education  should  enable  us  to  avail 
ourselves  of  all  our  powers  to  our  best  advantage, 
and  teach  us  how  to  learn  and  improve  through 
life — if  our  schools  are  serving  this  double  purpose 
— teaching  and  training,  as  they  do,  the  people  in 
nothing  that  bears  directly  on  their  future  vocation, 
which  is  mostly  industrial. 

"  The  circle  of  knowledge  through  which  every 
man  in  his  own  place  becomes  blessed,  begins 
immediately  around  him  from  his  own  being,  and 
from  his  own  relations."  Such  are  Pestalozzi's 
words.  Instruction,  foreign  to  a  man's  pursuit,  is 
soon  forgotten,  while  the  science  that  discovers 
to  a  man  the  philosophy  of  his  daily  work,  renders 
it  to  him  an  opportunity  for  constant  mental  growth 
and  satisfaction,  besides  the  practical  advantage  he 
derives  from  the  thorough  understanding  of  his 
business. 


Race  Education  Described.  291 

To  fit  men  for  duty  and  the  labor  of  life  is  the 
paramount  work  of  public  schools.    Do  they  either? 

We  are  beginning  to  feel  the  effects  of  crowding 
even  upon  this  continent,  especially  in  the  larger 
towns ;  and  nothing  but  Race  Education,  insisting 
with  equal  stringency  upon  physical,  mental,  moral 
and  industrial  training  from  earliest  infancy  to  full 
maturity,  can  bar  the  door  to  pauperism,  and  pre- 
pare for  us  a  future  in  which  none  will  be  so  poor 
as  to  suffer  want ;  none  so  vicious  as  to  inflict  wan- 
tonly an  injury  upon  his  neighbor;  none  so  igno- 
rant as  not  to  know  his  duty  and  none  so  unmanly 
as  not  to  practice  it. 

RACE   EDUCATION   DESCRIBED. 

After  we  had  penned  down  these  our  thoughts 
on  Education,  Dr.  E.  Seguin's  masterly  contribution 
to  physiological  Education  came  to  our  hand.  Our 
standpoint  is  the  practical  forced  upon  us  by  the 
study  of  the  unspeakable  misery  of  the  masses  and 
their  deterioration,  leading  us  to  Race  Education, 
or  Hereditary  Culture,  which  at  every  step  is  an 
ethical  as  well  as  a  physical  problem. 

The  principle  of  Race  Education,  or  Hereditary 
Culture,  combines  physical,  mental,  moral  and  in- 
dustrial elements  ;  it  satisfies  the  highest  require- 
ments of  science,  answers  the  common  ends  of  hu- 
man life  and  society,  recognizes  the  claims  of  the 


292  The  Education  of  the  Old  Greeks. 

individual,  the  nation  and  the  race  ;  the  ends  of 
life  and  the  means  for  attaining  them  evolve  from 
it.  It  warns  us  against  every  possible  mistake,  and 
commends  itself  the  more  as  the  common  degene- 
racy of  mankind  is  studied.  Practical  necessity 
leads  to  it ;  the  general  demand  for  universal  Edu- 
cation finds  its  fullest  expression  in  it ;  the  latest 
biological  results  are  formulated  in  it.  It  is  highly 
realistic  and  idealistic,  or  a  complete  synthesis  of 
both  ;  and,  finally,  history  shows  us  our  ideal  sys- 
tem of  Race  Education  in  execution  with  results, 
the  most  exalted  imagination  could  not  equal  as 
far  as  the  realization  of  the  beautiful  in  man  is 
concerned. 

THE   EDUCATION   OF   THE    OLD   GREEKS. 

The  ancient  Greeks,  who  were  but  small  in 
numbers,  have  furnished  the  nations  of  the  earth 
ideals  in  every  manner  of  greatness,  unsurpassed, 
yea,  unapproached.  It  is  not  the  sky,  it  is  not 
the  race — for  these  still  exist — but  the  great  men 
have  not  come  again  since  the  Education  of  that 
race  has  changed.  Lay  it  not  to  the  age,  sky, 
race  or  God  ;  give  us  the  Education  of  the  Greeks, 
and  God,  nature  and  the  race  will  give  us  Greeks 
again. 

We  take  issue  with  the  absurd  method  of  the 
schoolmen,    who   think    we    can    model    after   the 


The  Education  of  the  Old  Greeks.  293 

Greeks  by  turning  the  pages  of  musty  Greek 
grammars  and  lexicons.  If  we  are  to  excel  as 
the  Greeks  excelled,  we  must  adopt  the  same 
training  and  spirit  of  Education,  only  improved 
by  the  experience  of  later  ages. 

While  we  protest  against  forcing  Greek  grammar 
upon  a  hundred  thousand  youths  of  the  land  for 
the  sake  of  one  hundred,  who  will  make  a  success- 
ful study  of  the  noble  literature  of  that  language  ; 
we  insist,  however,  upon  the  propriety,  the  possi- 
bility and  the  necessity  of  giving  every  child  in 
the  land  the  same  Education  the  Greeks  gave  their 
children.  It  matters  little  if  we  read  Greek,  espe- 
cially as  it  is  commonly  read,  or  not.  What  we 
want  is  to  excel  in  action  as  the  Greeks  did,  and 
this  the  like  training  alone  can  give. 

All  branches  of  Education  were  comprised  by 
the  Greeks  under  the  terms  of  gymnastics  and 
music,  wonderfully  expressing  thereby  that  like 
these,  they  must  all  be  practiced  in  a  manner  as 
to  produce  strength  and  beauty  of  body  and 
soul. 

A  perfect  life  is  a  work  of  art,  and  is  not  attained 
by  reading  about  it,  but  by  acting,  by  living,  exer- 
cise and  steady  training,  and  in  this  we  must  model 
after  the  Greeks,  if  we  are  to  equal  them  in  beauty 
and  harmony  or  rhythm  of  action. 


294  The  Education  of  Afassao/msctts. 

THE   EDUCATION   OF   MASSACHUSETTS. 

Massachusetts  more  than  any  other  state  has 
made  our  system  of  common  schools  what  it  is. 
We  love  study  and  admire  that  state  for  the  te- 
nacity with  which  it  labors  on  its  historical  insti- 
tutions and  develops  and  improves  them.  But  if 
we  oppose  the  common  "school  system  of  Massa- 
chusetts of  to-day,  we  point  with  preference  to 
Massachusetts  two  hundred  years  ago — the  stand 
it  took  then  on  industrial  training  ;  and  if  we  insist 
on  early  Education,  it  is  Boston  fifty  years  ago  that 
gives  us  our  argument. 

Mr.  Phillips,  one  of  Massachusetts'  most  favored 
sons,  said  :  "  The  fact  is  that  many  young  people, 
graduates  of  our  public  schools,  are  not  capable  of 
doing  any  work  for  which  any  one  should  pay  a 
dollar,  nor  can  they  write  a  decent  letter  at  fifteen, 
nor  even  read  a  newspaper  well.  The  old  New 
England  system,  which  made  a  boy  work  six 
months  by  his  father's  side  on  the  farm  or  in  the 
workshop,  after  he  had  been  six  months  at  school, 
was  better  than  the  present  one.  From  such  a 
system  it  was  possible  to  get  such  a  man  as  Theo- 
dore Parker.  Now  the  public  school  hands  a  child 
to  its  parents  with  no  means  of  earning  its  bread." 

Mr.  E.  Washburn,  another  favored  son  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, admits  that  the  Education  the  mother 


The  Demands  of  Race  Education.  295 

must  give  the  child  is  a  thousand  times  more  impor- 
tant for  society  and  the  state  than  the  Education 
our  schools  give.  This  admits  our  whole  position 
so  far  as  the  indispensableness  of  national  infant 
schools  are  concerned.  If  to  watch  over  and 
nurse  a  baby  every  hour  and  minute  night  and  day, 
to  cook,  wash,  mend  and  keep  a  home  neat  and 
clean,  and  attend  to  a  hundred  other  household 
duties,  if  all  this  is  as  much  as  one  unaided  young 
mother  can  attend  to,  the  state  must  give  us  infant 
schools  to  attend  to  that  Education  of  the  heart 
and  character  of  young  children,  which  Mr,  Wash- 
burn admits  to  be  a  thousand  times  as  important 
to  society  and  the  state  than  the  later  Education, 
but  which  hardly  one  mother  in  ten  is  situated  to 
afford  her  young  children. 

THE  DEMANDS  OF  RACE  EDUCATION, 

The  demands  of  Race  Education  are  not  unrea- 
sonable. It  condemns  the  present  system,  which 
is  purely  intellectual,  and  gives  rise  to  an  intellec- 
tual strife  and  to  a  remorseless  competition  in  life, 
which  sends  millions  to  insane  asylums,  poor-houses, 
jails  and  early  graves. 

Race  Education  simply  insists  that  the  intellec- 
tual culture  of  the  present  common  school  system 
be  preceded  by  the  still  more  important  culture  of 
the  character,  morals  and  faculties  of  the  young 


296  The  Donands  of  Race  Education. 

children  in  national  infant  schools,  and  be  followed 
by  industrial  training  indispensable  for  self-support, 
general  usefulness  and  the  development  of  national 
wealth  and  the  prevention  of  pauperism — the  pest 
of  modern  states. 

We  may  sum  up  the  practical  points  of  our  sys- 
tem as  follows  : 

1.  Education  must  aim  at  the  preservation  and 
improvement  of  the  race. 

2.  Many  causes  at  work  contribute  to  a  race  de- 
terioration, which  manifests  itself  as 

a.  An  excessive  infant  as  well  as  adult  mortality; 

b.  Nervous  derangement  and  frequent  insani  y ; 

c.  Habitual  criminality  ; 

d.  An  inactive  pauper  temperament,  and  a  va- 

riety ; 

e.  Of  congenital  defectiveness,  weakness  or  de- 

formity. 

3.  To  lessen  human  deterioration  in  all  possible 
forms  is  the  great  aim  of  Education. 

4.  The  development  of  low  hereditary  tenden- 
cies must  be  counteracted  by  the  formation  of  op- 
posite habits  in  its  very  infancy,  and  thus  the  foun- 
dation must  be  laid  for  desirable  hereditary  tenden- 
cies, and,  hence,  the  all-importance  of  infant  train- 
ing schools. 

5.  Information  must  be  spread  among  the  peo- 
ple about  the  hereditary  nature  of  morbid  tenden- 


The  Demands  of  Race  Education.         297 

cies,  and  the  duty  of  parents  to  their  children  in 
whom  their  own  passions,  drunkenness  or  weak- 
ness, assume  the  shape  of  madness,  homicide  or 
idiocy,  bHndness  or  deaf-mutism. 

6.  A  knowledge  and  observance  of  the  laws  of 
hygiene  by  the  parents  will  lessen  in  the  children 
weakness,  the  cause  of  every  sort  of  defectiveness 
and  an  excessive  infant  mortality. 

7.  Race  preservation  being  the  end  of  Educa- 
tion, no  woman's  Education  is  finished  until  she 
has  acquired  practically  the  art  of  raising  children 
in  the  infant  training  school, 

8.  The  laws  of  health,  domestic  economy  and 
moral  government  are  woman's  first  studies,  as 
upon  them  depend  the  life  and  health,  the  eco- 
nomical success  and  the  moral  tone  of  the  family. 

9.  As  the  masses  must  live  by  their  physical 
exertions,  and  as  rude  labor  cannot  successfully 
compete  with  machinery,  men  must  be  trained  to 
industry  and  art  in  childhood  by  infant  training 
schools. 

10.  The  tendency  to  nervous  derangement  and 
insanity,  so  prevalent  in  our  age,  can  only  be  cor- 
rected by  inuring  men  to  physical  labor. 

11.  The  spreading  of  technical  industry  alone 
can  infuse  into  our  age  a  spirit  of  simplicity,  mod- 
eration and  honest  dealing,  and  thus  counteract 
the  present  extravagance  and  fraud  ending  in  ruin. 

13* 


298     Race  Educatioti  and  a  Rational  Idealism. 

12.  The  school,  science  and  Education  must  be 
brought  in  closer  relationship  with  the  factory,  and 
lessen  the  dangers  accruing  to  life  from  deleterious 
processes. 

13.  In  the  people's  school  technical  skill  and 
proficiency  must  form  the  acme  of  man's  Educa- 
tion, as  domestic  proficiency  must  be  the  end  of 
woman's  Education  ;  and  the  school  must  provide 
for  each,  and  dismiss  neither  the  one  nor  the  other 
until  this  is  accomplished. 

14.  Education  must,  above  all,  prevent  pauper- 
ism, which  through  want  and  misery  leads  to  every 
form  of  moral  as  well  as  physical  depravity,  by  fos- 
tering chiefly  what  is  useful,  and  making  man  an 
efficient  and  self-supporting  producer. 

15.  Every  part  of  Education  must  practically  as 
well  as  theoretically  be  based  upon  the  devotion 
of  the  individual  to  the  race.  Our  present  Educa- 
tion is  neither  practical  nor  moral.  It  is  all  liter- 
ary foppery,  and  too  trifling  to  be  borne  with  in  an 
age  of  hard  common  sense. 

RACE   EDUCATION   AND   A   RATIONAL   IDEALISM. 

The  preservation  and  improvement  of  the  race 
are  the  plummet  line  of  every  part  of  our  system 
of  Education.  The  hygienic  and  economic  rela- 
tions of  the  individual  are'  ever  present  to  us,  as 
morbid  juices  lead  to  morbid  desires,  and  an  empty 


Race  Education  and  a  Rational  Idealism.     299 

stomach  is  dull  of  moral  comprehension,  and  health 
and  bread  are  important  factors  of  virtue,  and  are 
both  secured  by  labor  wisely  and  moderately  per- 
formed. But,  though  our  aim  is  tangible,  it  is  com- 
prehensive, and  by  no  means  excludes  the  ideal 
ends  of  all  schools,  which  we  only  use  as  means  for 
the  improvement  of  the  race,  which  to  us  is  the 
highest  goal  of  Education. 

It  has  been  most  truly  said  before  us.  Education 
must  help  us  to  help  ourselves,  not  so  much  impart 
as  draw  out.  It  must  train  us  to  learn  from  our 
own  observation,  or  to  get  our  knowledge  at  first 
hand  from  nature.  It  must  inure  us  to  freedom 
without  license,  for  chains  are  as  galling  to  the 
mind  as  to  the  body,  and  lawlessness  is  debasing. 

The  whole  of  Education  must  be  a  process  of 
unfolding,  a  gradual  revelation  of  what  is  in  man. 
Education,  in  developing  the  faculties  and  capacities 
of  the  human  mind,  always  commences  with  what 
is  nearest  to  us,  and  leads  us  gradually  by  our  own 
exertions  to  do  and  to  comprehend  by  our  own 
power  and  energy  what  seemed  but  shortly  beyond 
our  capacity.  It  begins  by  naming  to  the  child  the 
external  parts  of  the  body,  and  leads  it  gradually 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  most  complex  functions 
of  the  human  system  and  the  laws  we  must  observe 
if  tve  wish  to  live  a  healthy  and  happy  active  life. 

Education,  beginning  with   the  simple  relation 


300     Race  Education  and  a  Rational  Idealism. 

of  the  child  to  its  parents,  leads  it  on  to  the  knowl- 
edge and  obedience  of  the  laws  which  govern  men 
and  states,  and  selfishness  gives  way  as  the  child 
feels  its  dependence  upon  its  mother,  father,  broth- 
ers, sisters,  the  community  and  humanity. 

Education  makes  the  child  feel  and  act  in  unison 
with  nature,  humanity  and  the  infinite.  While  it 
cultivates  individuality,  it  develops  the  conscious- 
ness, that  it  is  but  part  of  the  great  whole,  in  har- 
mony with  which  it  must  seek  its  own  growth. 

Education  must  embrace  the  activities  of  the 
body,  which  give  energy  to  the  mind.  It  must 
assist  us  in  giving  shape  and  form  to  our  ideas 
with  our  own  hands.  It  must  make  us  creative  as 
well  as  intelligent.  We  must  realize  our  thoughts 
in  the  world  without  us  as  well  as  form  correct 
ideas  in  our  minds  of  things  external.  In  man  the 
ideal  and  the  real  blend  and  take  coloring  from 
one  another,  and,  standing  as  mediators  between 
the  two,  we  are  at  peace  with  all. 

Education  must  ever  work  under  the  inspiration 
that  the  child  it  directs  is  part  of  nature,  humanity 
and  the  infinite,  for  which  it  must  be  educated  fully 
as  well  as  for  itself. 

We  must  be  educated  for  intelligent  work,  for 
virtue,  for  freedom,  for  progress  and  for  humanity. 

The  development  of  the  capacities  of  man  secures 
his  highest  usefulness,  and  the  bringing  his  passions 


Race  Education  and  a  Rational  Idealism.     301 

under  the  rule  of  reason,  bestows  the  truest  happi- 
ness— peace  of  mind. 

Education  embraces  the  cultivation  of  the  heart 
as  well  as  the  development  of  the  intellectual  pow- 
ers, and  the  science  of  the  duties  and  responsibili- 
ties of  human  life  is  the  paramount  knowledge  of 
mankind  and  must  form  a  part  of  his  instruction, 
adapted  to  the  various  stages  of  Education, 

Education  must  train  us  to  the  highest  activity 
in  the  service  of  humanity,  truth,  justice  and  good- 
ness. It  must  train  us  to  take  the  right  for  our 
guide  and  to  be  content,  and  have  internal  peace 
when  we  have  done  our  best. 

Education  must  train  the  body,  enlarge  the  un- 
derstanding, develop  the  affections,  give  clearness 
to  our  perceptions  and  energy  to  our  thoughts.  It 
must  free  us  from  narrow-mindedness  and  lead  us 
to  reason  and  justice,  to  the  infinite  and  the  abso- 
lute, in  which  alone  there  is  rest. 

Education,  by  properly  watching  over  and  devel- 
oping every  faculty,  physical,  mental  and  moral, 
assists  in  the  revelation  of  our  God-likeness,  which 
consists  in  living  not  in  and  for  ourselves,  but  in 
and  for  all  things.  It  cultivates  thoughtfulness, 
kindliness  and  industry,  a  hand  ready  in  execution, 
a  quick  eye,  an  inventive  imagination  and  whatever 
else  renders  man  effective,  is  in  its  scope. 

While  Education  works  up  to  the  general  ideal 


302     Race  Education  and  a  Ratioiial  Idealism. 

of  a  universal  humanity,  it  fosters  with  particular 
care  what  is  original  in  eveiy  single  man,  and  con- 
stitutes his  individuality. 

Education  leads  us  to  know  ourselves  and  to 
comprehend  the  times  we  live  in,  to  move  with  it 
and  to  live  not  for  the  present,  but  for  the  future, 
not  in  the  narrow  limit  of  our  own  self,  but  in  the 
whole.  It  trains  us  to  subordinate  selfish  desire  to 
universal  principles  and  the  good  of  all.  The  noble 
passions  must  be  inflamed  by  examples  of  noble- 
ness, patriotism  and  self-sacrifice  studiously  held 
up  to  them,  as  fire  kindles  on  fire. 

Education  brings  the  child  up  to  the  ideal  of  the 
educator  and  fits  it  for  the  world  it  is  to  live  and 
act  in ;  showing  man  his  destiny,  it  assists  him  in 
fulfilling  it.  It  is  the  lever  by  which  we  act  upon 
the  future  of  the  race. 

Education  trains  man  to  submission  to  the  in- 
finite, to  the  love  of  man  and  to  a  self-determined 
activity  in  the  service  of  the  true,  the  good  and 
the  beautiful,  in  all  his  relations  to  man,  nature 
and  the  infinite.  It  imparts  to  him  true  human 
culture  and  a  character,  as  far  as  possible,  inde- 
pendent of  external  influences  and  in  full  accord- 
ance with  reason. 

Education  trains  us  to  be  true  to  the  relations 
of  things,  and  to  act  upon  general  principles,  so  as 
to  earn  the  approval  of  our  own  conscience  as  well 


Classical  and  Scientific  Edncation.  303 

as  that  of  an  impartial  world.  It  cultivates  the 
aesthetic  faculty  and  renders  the  will  effective,  pro- 
moting thereby  the  good  and  the  beautiful,  and 
making  us  perfect. 

Let  us  hold  up  the  sacredness  of  childhood,  hu- 
manity and  the  eternal  laws  of  mind  and  its  rela- 
tionships, as  reflected  from  this  rapid  sketch  of  the 
nature  and  work  of  Education,  and  compare  with 
it  the  dead  materialism  or  aimless  routine  work 
of  our  schools.  What  wonder  that  the  generation 
it  brings  up  is  as  indifferent  as  men  brought  up  ac- 
cording to  the  mandates  of  eternal  reason  would 
be  glorious.  Mankind  ought  to  resemble  a  blissful 
family,  a  haven  full  of  rest ;  but,  alas !  it  is  all  a 
pandemonium  full  of  unrest,  in  which  every  one  is 
at  war  with  everybody  else  and  with  all  that  is  good 
in  himself. 

THE   CLAIMS   OF  CLASSICAL  AND   SCIENTIFIC 
EDUCATION. 

More  than  one  battle  has  to  be  fought  before  a 
great  cause  is  forever  won.  For  upward  of  two 
hundred  years  the  contest  between  the  Old  and  the 
New  Education  has  been  going  on  ;  and  only  induced 
by  repeated  recent  attempts  to  introduce  Latin  into 
the  highest  grades  of  our  common  schools,  do  we 
enter  upon  an  argument  that  we  should  have  con- 
sidered settled  long  ago  by  the  popular  verdict. 


304  Classical  and  Scientific  Education. 

We  combat  the  introduction  of  Latin  as  the 
adoption  of  a  false  principle,  which  vitiates  our 
whole  system  of  popular  Education. 

Once,  when  Popery  and  Caesarism  swayed  the 
world,  institutions  had  to  take  the  line  of  author- 
ity, the  rule  of  life  and  the  norm  of  their  culture 
from  Rome ;  and  the  effects  of  this  conspiracy  still 
blight  our  system  of  Education.  Latin  and  Greek 
grammar,  we  are  seriously  told,  are  better  suited  for 
the  formation  and  development  of  the  human  mind 
and  its  faculties  than  God's  infinite  universe.  Latin 
and  Greek  grammar  usurp,  therefore,  the  place  of 
science,  which  alone  gives  us  power  over  nature  for 
our  own  good  and  the  benefit  of  mankind. 

Even  our  purely  English  Education  is  vitiated 
by  putting  grammatical  pedantries  and  verbal  trash 
before,  the  practical  knowledge  of  things  real  and 
useful. 

It  is  comparatively  a  short  time  when  Latin  was 
the  only  written  language  of  modern  Europe;  next, 
an  English  book  was  hardly  thought  decent  without 
being  interspersed  with  crumbs  of  Latin  ;  and  even 
to-day  the  sciences  useful  to  the  common  people 
are  inaccessible  to  them  by  barbarous  Greek  and 
Latin  names  without  number.  Scholars  naturally 
over-estimate  their  little  Latin  and  Greek,  but  this 
magnifying  of  a  deceitful  sort  of  half-knowledge 
is  hardly  decent  or  honest. 


Classical  and  Scientific  Edjication.  305 

Already  Comenlus,  born  1592,  clearly  saw  that 
nature  and  industry  are  more  properly  instruments 
of  mental  development,  observation,  comparison 
and  judgment  than  mere  words  and  phrases  are. 

John  Locke,  born  1632,  insisted  upon  the  same 
principle,  and,  hence,  laid  stress  upon  drawing  and 
the  principle  of  utility,  deprecating  the  loss  of 
time  bestowed  upon  a  miserable  little  Latin  and 
Greek. 

Herman  Francke,  born  1663,  the  founder  of  the 
celebrated  Orphan  House  and  many  other  public 
institutions  at  Halle,  was  equally  eager  to  give  to 
the  common  course  of  instruction  a  more  realistic 
tendency. 

J.  J.  Hecker  organized  as  early  as  1747  the  first 
real,  or  high  and  technical  school,  at  Berlin  upon 
practical  and  scientific  principles.  Men  of  common 
sense  have  since  opposed  the  senseless  routine  of 
Latin  and  Greek  grammar ;  until  to-day,  in  Germany, 
the  land  of  thorough  scholarship,  the  old  seminaries 
are  fast  giving  way  to  r^^/ schools,  teaching  drawing, 
mathematics,  science,  technology  and  modern  lan- 
guages instead  of  the  old  Latin  and  Greek  jargon. 

The  national  budget  necessitates  the  government 
to  favor  real  ox  industrial  and  technical  high  schools, 
which  are  building  up  the  industry,  commerce  and 
financial  condition  of  the  country. 

But  science  and  industry  are  not  only  to  be  rcc- 


3o6  Classical  and  Scientific  Education. 

ommended  on  the  ground  of  their  utiHty,  they  are 
every  Avay  superior  as  instruments  of  thought  or 
educationally  than  Latin  and  Greek. 

The  school  must  make  men  think.  How  is  this 
end  best  to  be  attained  ?  The  new  method  an- 
swers, by  early  acquainting  men  with  nature  as  a 
system  of  thought,  law,  and  spiritual  relations  ;  so 
that,  wherever  men  may  be,  the  air  they  breathe, 
the  water  they  drink,  the  sky  they  see,  minerals, 
plants,  or  whatever  may  meet  their  view,  may 
bring  to  their  mind  the  physical,  mathematical, 
chemical  or  physiological  relations  underlying 
them,  and  thus  exercise  their  thoughts  and  keep 
their  minds  ^active. 

Next  to  nature,  industry  occupies  men's  thoughts, 
which,  therefore,  combined  with  science,  is  of  great 
educational  value  through  life. 

But  as  the  individual  is  rooted  in  the  nation  in 
which  it  finds  his. spiritual  home,  the  national  lit- 
erature forms  another  important  element  in  the 
Education  of  the  individual. 

Thus  the  new  Education  builds  its  system  upon 
nature,  industry  and  nationality,  to  which  the  old 
Education  opposes  its  miserable  pittance  of  Greek 
and  Latin. 

Undoubtedly  Petrarcha,  Rcuchlin,  Erasmus  and 
the  like  men,  who  penetrated  into  the  genius  of 
Greek  civilization  and  its  realism,  or  perfect  union 


Classical  and  Scientific  Education.  307 

of  spirit  and  matter,  which  they  opposed  to  the  re- 
viHngs  of  nature  by  the  old  Church,  were  highly 
favorable  to  modern  advance ;  but,  alas !  our  fourth 
and  fifth  rate  classical  scholars  know  nothing  of  the 
old  Greeks,  and  their  miserable  little  Greek  gram- 
mar and  parrot-like  learned  few  detached  pieces  of 
Greek  or  Latin  stupefy  them,  and  make  them  intol- 
erable through  the  ill-founded  conceit  with  which 
it  fills  them. 

Emerson  says,  that  he  has  not  met  in  all  his  trav- 
els in  America  with  half  a  dozen  of  men  who  could 
read  Plato  profitably.  This  whole  Greek  and  Latin 
scholarship  is  an  imposture,  the  writing  of  miser- 
able verses  in  these  languages  included.  There  is 
not  one  teacher  in  ten  who  has  sufficient  knowledge 
of  these  languages  to  derive  from  them  a  higher 
culture.  The  learned  apparatus  requisite  for  their 
thorough  understanding  requires  the  study  of  a 
lifetime.  Must  hundreds  of  thousands  of  students 
in  the  land  throw  away  their  years  and  opportuni- 
ties for  the  sake  of  a  few  hundred  Latin  and  Greek 
roots,  which  can  be  learned  by  any  English  student 
with  the  help  of  an  etymological  handbook  in  a 
few  weeks,  if  not  days  ? 

And,  as  for  the  historic  value  of  Greek  and  Ro- 
man civilization,  a  few  parrot-like  learned  detached 
pieces  of  Latin  and  Greek,  forming  a  classic  course, 
have   nothinir  whatsoever  to  do  with   this   sort  of 


3o8  Classical  and  Scientific  RJ.ucation. 

study  ;  and  any  English  reader  can  find  most  com- 
petent information  about  it  in  the  great  writers  on 
the  subject ;  and  as  to  an  original  familiarity  with 
antiquity,  not  a  half  a  dozen  of  men  ever  attain  it 
in  any  country. 

A  noted  Oxonian  scholar,  in  his  address  before 
the  British  Association,  says  that  educators  com- 
plain of  the  indifference  of  all  classes  for  educa- 
tional opportunities  offered  them  in  all  sorts  of 
higher  and  lower  institutions.  And  true  it  is,  he 
continues,  university  professors  would  lecture  to 
benches  literally  empty,  were  it  not  that  the  pen- 
sions attached  to  scholarships  attracted  students  to 
the  universities.  But  educationalists  forget  that, 
though  parents  esteem  Education,  their  chief  care 
is  to  bring  up  their  children  that  they  shall  be  able 
to  provide  for  themselves ;  and,  hence,  if  schools 
will  not  teach  and  train  scholars  for  their  future 
vocation,  but  insist  upon  making  the  critical,  gram- 
matical and  literary  feature  of  the  old  schools  the 
ruling  tendency  of  our  present  Education,  the  hard- 
working, matter-of-fact  world  of  to-day  will  entirely 
turn  its  back  upon  them. 

Classical  students  pretend  to  be  a  privileged 
class  of  scholars,  and  use  Latin  and  Greek  as  the 
badge  of  the  aristocratic  order,  when,  in  fact, 
their  Latin  and  Greek  amounts  to  little  more 
than  nothing. 


Classical  and  Scientific  Education.  309 

Would  we  pardon  the  arrogance  of  a  German 
or  Italian,  who  maintained  that  we  cannot  be  men 
of  culture  without  studying  his  literature  ?  And 
is  it  less  stupid  in  a  Latin  or  Greek  scholar  to 
maintain  that  we  cannot  be  men  of  the  finest  cul- 
ture without  going  to  school  to  Rome  or  Greece  ? 

Is  the  book  of  nature  written  by  the  hand  of  in- 
finite power  and  wisdom,  and  is  our  own  history  and 
literature  not  instructive,  refining  and  suggestive 
enough  for  us,  and  every  way  more  useful  and  full 
of  great  issues,  than  the  half-understood  crudities 
of  Greek  and  Latin  books  ? 

Has  our  modern  civilization  developed  no  new 
ideas  and  principles  to  which  the  ancients  were 
strangers  ? 

Is  humanity  so  poor  that  it  cannot  develop  itself 
on  nature,  industry  and  nationality,  but  is  utterly 
lost  without  Latin  and  Greek  ?  And  still  men  will 
boast  upon  the  superiority  of  Christian  civilization! 

Is  it  not  enough  that  we  are  denationalized  by  a 
constant  stream  of  men  of  all  nations  flowing  in 
upon  us?  Must  the  school,  too,  tear  us  from  our 
own  soil  and  take  us  to  Rome  and  Greece  to  make 
of  us  anything  but  what  we  are  by  our  own  past 
history  ?  Should  not  our  public  schools  deepen 
our  national  feeling  and  nurse  our  souls  with  the 
life,  work  and  words  of  our  own  poets,  authors  and 
statesmen  ? 


3IO  Classical  and  Scientific  Education. 

Or  are  we  so  poor  that  we  have  none  good 
enough  in  our  own  history  and  nation  who  could 
serve  as  models  to  our  children  ?  People,  of  course, 
will  study  Sanscrit,  Zend  and  Arabic,  and  so  they 
may  Latin  and  Greek  ;  but  the  imposition  is  to 
force  any  of  these  languages  upon  our  children  as 
a  thing  indispensable  to  culture,  and  deprive  them 
of  the  study  of  science,  industry  and  their  own, 
perhaps  equally  excellent,  if  not  superior,  litera- 
ture. By  introducing  Latin  into  our  high  schools 
we  exclude  practically  from  them  the  industrial 
classes,  who  have  neither  leisure  nor  taste  for  such 
studies. 

Latin  has  for  ages,  like  an  impenetrable  barrier, 
separated  the  educated  class  from  the  common 
people.  Do  we  want  to  build  up  this  wall  again  ? 
Is  it  not  more  in  keeping  with  our  civilization  to 
make  our  own  tongue  the  sole  medium  of  science 
and  literature,  that  it  may  be  the  harbinger  of  cul- 
ture and  refinement  to  the  lowliest  hut  in  the  land 
as  to  the  proudest  palace  ? 

That  the  Greeks  had  a  monopoly  of  ideal  culture, 
which  is  only  to  be  acquired  by  the  study  of  their 
literature,  is  simply  preposterous.  Ideal  men  had 
never  any  more  an  existence  than  ideal  trees  or 
animals. 

Only  science,  or  the  knowledge  of  the  laws  of 
nature  and  of  common  things   and  the  literature 


Classical  and  Scimtiju   llducati^-n.         311 

of  the  land,  can  reach  all  and  be  the  means  of  uni- 
versal culture  and  prosperity ;  and,  hence,  the 
importance  of  schools  of  science  and  industry, 
which  are  nurseries  of  national  intelligence  and 
greatness. 

Whoever  wishes  well  the  cause  of  truth  and 
humanity  must  be  in  favor  of  the  advancement 
of  science,  which  has  always  aided  general  edu- 
cation and  the  improvement  of  the  masses,  as  it 
is  in  the  whole  course  of  human  history  attended, 
as  Buckle  has  noticed,  by  a  widespread  culture  and 
a  social  reform  fostering  the  material  interests  of 
civilization. 

General  principles  and  philosophy  are  also  a 
very  unsafe  guide,  and  even  a  dangerous  one,  if 
they  do  not  rest  upon  the  safe  basis  of  scientific 
knowledge  and  practical  observation. 

Beside,  we  cannot  understand  the  spirit  of  our 
own  time  nor  choose  the  right  means  for  achieving 
our  own  purposes  without  a  knowledge  of  the  ele- 
ments of  science,  industry  and  social  philosophy. 

The  Church  fashioned  our  old  institutions,  and  as 
she  is  the  only  road  to  heaven  and  the  saints  lived 
in  her  early  days,  so  is  Latin  the  only  way  to  hu- 
man culture  and  only  the  ancients  were  perfect. 
The  modern  culture,  with  its  new  elements  of  free- 
dom, industry  and  commerce,  is  the  mother  of  our 
new  schools  of  science  and  industry  for  the  masses, 


312  Classical  and  Scientific  Education. 

and  their  deliverance  from  ignorance  and  its  thral- 
dom. 

It  ill  becomes  the  realistic  Greek  student  to 
charge  science  with  materialistic  tendencies.  It  is 
through  matter  the  spirit  manifests  itself.  Material 
elements  have  often  a  great  moral  significance. 

What  would  become  of  modern  civilization  if  it 
were  deprived  of  coal,  cotton  or  iron  ?  Industry  is 
to  culture  and  civilization  what  the  body  is  to  the 
soul. 

Industry,  far  from  materializing  us,  forces  us  to 
the  study  of  the  laws  and  relations  of  nature,  her 
products,  the  methods  of  gaining,  treating  and  pre- 
paring them  for  the  wants  of  men,  and  fosters  the 
knowledge  of  the  laws  and  conditions  of  nations 
with  whom  we  are  brought  in  contact. 

There  is  not  an  occupation — and  if  it  were  break- 
ing stones  on  the  road — but  affects  ultimately  the 
state  and  the  very  constitution  of  society. 

Industry,  through  the  creation  of  wealth  and  the 
distribution  of  property,  becomes  the  mother  of 
civilization. 

Industry  is  progressive,  promotes  peace,  favors 
labor — the  condition  of  order — and  science — the 
basis  of  its  progress — as  well  as  the  higher  arts, 
which  alone  satisfy  increased  wealth. 

Schools  of  science  educate  us  for  life  and  indus- 
try.    It  is  hard  to  say  what  Latin  and  Greek  edu- 


Classical  and  Scientific  Ediication.         313 

cate  us  for.    Or  are  we  to  take  this  very  uselessness 
for  ideality  ? 

The  achievements  of  science  and  industry  are 
countless.  Every  day  is  marked  by  some  new  dis- 
covery, be  it  the  compass,  the  telescope,  the  spec- 
troscope, the  telephone,  the  power-loom,  the  steam 
engine,  the  locomotive,  the  sewing  machine  or  the 
mower  and  reaper.  Chemistry  opens  the  way  to 
the  very  heart  of  nature  and  leads  to  every  profit- 
able manufacture ;  its  elements  are  the  alphabet 
by  which  we  may  read  every  page  in  the  book  of 
nature.  Geology  discloses  to  us  the  past,  as  astron- 
omy does  the  future.  What  has  Latin  and  Greek 
to  put  beside  all  this  ?  We  admit  that  the  very 
remains  of  the  ancient  life  of  man  are  imbedded 
in  old  linguistic  strata,  and  that  the  history  and  . 
development  of  language  are  the  history  of  the 
race  and  of  the  human  mind.  But  what  has  the 
miserable  Latin  and  Greek  of  the  schools  to  do 
with  the  science  of  language  and  its  history.^ 

Almost  seventy  years  ago  Sidney  Smith  scourged 
classical  pedants  with  his  caustic  wit,  and  said,  they 
bring  us  up  as  if  we  were  all  to  become  village 
school  teachers  and  spend  our  lives  in  declinating 
nouns  and  conjugating  verbs.  They  despise  the 
science  of  things  and  the  knowledge  of  human 
affairs,  and  dignify  their  Latin  and  Greek  stuff  with 
the  name  of  erudition. 
14 


314  Cidssiidl  an  J  i^.itHtijic  lidiicatian. 

The  learning  of  a  language,  beside  the  vernacular, 
may  bring  clearly  and  distinctly  before  the  mind 
every  idea  expressed  in  human  language,  assist  in 
clear,  exact  and  vigorous  thinking,  and  develops 
the  highly  important  power  of  abstract  thought. 
But  all  this  may  be  achieved  just  as  well  by  learn- 
ing a  living  language,  and  even  mucli  better  than 
by  a  dead  one. 

Once  the  privileged  few  sought  in  school  a  sort 
of  diplomatic  shrewdness ;  and  the  impenetrable 
Latin  fog  made  them  appear  to  the  masses  like 
demi-gods.  To-day,  when  the  people  rule,  and 
private  as  well  as  public  expenditure  is  large,  some- 
thing more  than  mere  shrewdness,  make-believe  and 
grand  phrase — science,  that  increases  and  improves 
production,  is  looked  for  in  schools. 

The  masses  cannot  bend  over  books.  The  gen- 
eral fine  taste  of  the  Greeks  was  due  to  the  element 
of  culture  in  their  public  institutions ;  and  univer- 
sal culture  among  us  is  only  possible  if  the  industries 
in  which  we  all  are  engaged  assume  the  character 
of  art  and  science,  and  become  thereby  a  school  of 
culture  for  us  all,  as  public  life  was  for  the  Greeks. 

Once  life  was  monotonous  and  the  imagination 
needed  a  stimulation  word-culture  afforded.  To- 
day life  is  only  too  exciting,  and  nothing  but  sober 
science  can  bestow  what  is  wanted — prosperity,  the 
basis  of  universal  civilization. 


Classical  and  Sciintific  Education .         315 

We,  too,-had  for  many  years  neither  eyes  nor 
ears  for  anything  but  the  poetry  of  the  ages  and 
the  dreams  of  philosophy.  Arabic  and  Sanskrit 
trifles,  like  Latin,  Greek  and  other  literary  trash 
came  all  in  for  their  share  of  our  attention.  And 
to-day  we  freely  confess,  had  we  less  indulged  in 
idle  curiosity  and  literary  vanity,  but  by  washing 
and  combing  a  few  forlorn  boys,  made  of  them 
decent  members  of  society,  the  world  would  have 
been  the  gainer,  and  we  should  have  lost  nothing 
by  it. 

Men  seem  to  escape  one  error  only  to  fall  into 
another.  We  have  no  more  faith  in  the  jargon  of 
the  creeds,  but  put  our  trust  in  the  jargon  of  the 
schools,  and  men  neglecting  to  do  the  good  work 
at  their  door  think  to  lay  the  world  and  civilization 
under  obligation  by  talking  about  Arabic  and 
Sanskrit. 

Our  classical  students  have  much  to  say  about  a 
formal  ideal  culture  and  the  beautiful.  But  are 
these  grammatical  pedants  not  notoriously  awkward 
in  their  taste  ?  And  is  the  genius  for  art  and  the 
beautiful  not  rather  an  inspiration  than  a  scholastic 
acquisition? 

Is  not  the  flood  of  grammatical,  archaeological, 
mythological  and  literary  notices  accompanying 
every  line  of  the  classics  sufficient  to  destroy  all 
poetic  charm  ?    And  what  can  a  tyro  in  the  ancient 


3i6  Classical  and  Scientific  Education. 

languages  know  of  the  beauties  of  an  author  of 
whom  he  has  read  but  a  few  scraps  ? 

We  leave  it  to  the  judgment  of  anybody,  what  is 
more  apt  to  develop  formal  ideal  culture,  a  heap 
of  arbitraiy  grammatical  observations  or  the  study 
of  nature,  which  is  a  systematic  series  of  interde- 
pendent relations  and  an  organic  whole,  every  part 
of  which  is  the  embodiment  of  a  beautiful  law. 

Or  does  the  formation  of  the  root,  branch,  leaf, 
bud  and  flower  in  a  plant  and  its  contemplation  not 
contribute  as  much  to  the  ideal  and  formal  culture 
of  the  student  as  the  memorizing  of  the  prefixes 
and  suffixes  of  declensions  and  conjugations? 

How  utterly  false  is  the  assertion  that  the  study 
of  the  material  world  is  less  rich  and  suggestive 
than  the  so-called  humanistic  studies. 

The  simplest  mineral,  beside  its  physical  proper- 
ties and  uses,  leads  us  to  the  contemplation  of  its 
chemical  composition  and  geological  relations,  and 
thus  carries  us  back  to  the  past  history  of  the  globe. 

But  when  we  consider  that  nothing  in  the  state, 
religion  or  life  of  the  ancients,  their  slaxcry,  gladi- 
ators, unmentionable  viceSj  cruel  t}rannics,  etc.. 
comport  with  our  taste  and  civilization,  can  it  be 
wholesome  for  the  heart  and  mind  of  the  student 
to  attach  himself  to  the  classic  phrase  which,  what- 
ever its  form  may  be,  is  substantially  ignoble? 

How  infinite,  rich  and  real  are  the  laws  and  ob- 


Classical  and  Scientific  Edncatio  \         317 

jects  of  nature  and  its  kingdoms  and  their  relations 
to  man.  What  a  study,  and  what  an  opportunity 
for  culture,  for  observation,  reflection  and  self-im- 
provement ! 

Science  and  industrial  schools  use  nature  and  the 
living  present  as  educational  means,  as  the  Greeks 
made  use  of  their  own  day,  who,  verily,  did  not 
trouble  themselves  with  the  grammars  and  literary 
remains  of  a  still  more  remote  antiquity. 

Mathematics,  astronomy,  physics  and  chemistry 
are  said  to  deal  in  definite  quantities  and  relations, 
and  the  process  of  reasoning  in  these  branches  is 
too  much  in  a  straight  line,  while  in  human  affairs 
we  must  be  on  the  outlook  in  every  direction.  But 
does  not  the  past  history  of  the  globe  and  the  for- 
mation or  upheaval  of  mountain  chains,  the  forma- 
tion of  seas  and  rivers,  the  change  of  climes,  the 
migration  of  plants  and  animals — does  not  meteor- 
ology, does  not  political  economy,  the  philosophy 
of  history  and  a  host  of  other  highly  useful  sciences 
afford  infinitely  superior  instruments  for  the  devel- 
opment and  culture  of  general  reasoning  than  musty 
Latin  and  Greek  grammars  and  vocables  ? 

Physical  nature  is  not  a  stranger  to  moral  rela- 
tions. Columbus,  Copernicus  and  Newton  have  by 
their  physical  discoveries  revolutionized  the  world 
of  human  relations.  And  Humboldt,  Oersted  and 
Darwin  have  changed  the  whole  tenor  of  human 


3l8  Classical  and  Scioitijic  Edutation. 

thought  in  our  own  day.  Watts,  Stephenson,  Ark- 
wright  and  Morse  have  by  their  discoveries  of  steam, 
the  railroad,  the  jenny  and  the  telegraph  thrown 
humanity  into  an  altogether  different  mould  and 
created  a  world  of  new  moral  relations. 

Science  and  industry  are  not  by  any  means  purely 
materialistic,  but  rather  highly  humanistic  in  many 
of  their  relations  and  tendencies. 

The  wealth  and  prosperity  of  nations  depend 
upon  their  exploring  the  laws  of  nature  ;  and  the 
knowledge  of  the  true,  beautiful  and  sublime  in 
nature  is  wonderfully  linked  with  the  useful,  aptly 
remarks  Humboldt. 

Nothing,  says  Oersted,  is  more  elevating  than 
the  knowledge  of  the  ever-constant  laws  of  nature. 
Science,  says  the  same  savant,  a  help  to  industry, 
leads  to  work,  while  a  fanciful  culture  leads  man 
away  from  his  work. 

That  the  classical  studies,  which  are  hardly  any- 
thing else  than  grammar,  cultivate  the  moral  feel- 
ings, hardly  deserves  a  refutation  ;  while,  certainly, 
the  study  and  contemplation  of  the  physical  uni- 
verse in  more  than  one  way  cultivate  the  finer  feel- 
ings of  man. 

Everything,  says  Guyot,  is  order  and  liarmony  in 
the  universe,  because  it  is  the  thought  of  God. 
This  sublime  unity  in  the  infinite  variety  of  things 
is  one  of  the  many  voices  of  nature  audible  to  a 
susceptible  heart. 


Classical  and  Scientific  Education.         319 

The  collegian  may  melt  into  ecstasy  at  the  beauty 
of  a  landscape  ;  the  scientific  student  is  led  by  the 
observation  of  a  pebble  or  a  piece  of  chalk  to  a 
thousand  facts  and  relations  past  and  present,  from 
which  he  construes  a  landscape,  or  an  order  of 
things  that  existed  millions  of  ages  ago. 

The  observation  of  nature  is  a  school  for  the 
senses,  which  the  linguistic  student  uses  but  very- 
poorly,  so  that  he  can  hardly  be  said  to  see,  hear 
or  smell  with  correctness. 

What  stupidity  to  maintain  that  we  can  better 
form  our  minds  by  reading  the  words  of  Homer  or 
Sophocles  than  by  reading  the  eternal  thoughts 
of  the  infinite  Spirit  written  in  flowers,  rocks,  trees 
and  milky  ways  !  The  Iliad  is  but  a  syllable — if  as 
much — in  the  great  book  of  existence. 

Not  languages,  but  science,  was  the  password  to 
Plato's  academy,  over  the  entrance  of  which  we 
read  the  inscription  :  **  Let  none  ignorant  of  geom- 
etry enter  here." 

The  utter  dissimilarity  of  antiquity  has  been 
made  an  argument  in  favor  of  its  study  by  us 
moderns.  We  have  learned  to  be  surprised  at  no 
sophistry.  How  much  nearer  the  truth  is  the  argu- 
ment that  antiquity  being  entirely  dissimilar  to  our 
own  world,  whatever  we  learn  about  it  is,  for  want 
of  analogy  or  association  of  ideas,  forgotten  as 
soon  as  we  lay  the  Latin  and  Greek  books  aside 
and  enter  upon  this  new,  modern  world. 


320         Classical  and  Scientific  Education. 

Man  is  but  part  of  nature,  and  to  know  himself 
and  the  laws  which  govern  him,  he  must  know  na- 
ture.    To  know  nature  is  to  know  himself. 

Prof,  Youmans  says  very  significantly,  the  sim- 
plicity in  the  structural  elements  and  the  complex- 
ity of  the  whole  in  nature  as  well  as  in  the  brain, 
are  such  as  to  make  the  phenomena  of  the  one  the 
fittest  instrument  for  the  development  and  culture 
of  the  other. 

What  wonder  that,  as  Matthew  Arnold  confesses, 
young  men  at  the  university  exhibit  a  slackness,  a 
sleep  of  the  mind,  a  torpor  of  intellectual  life,  a 
dearth  of  ideas,  an  indifference  to  fine  culture,  a 
disbelief  in  its  necessity,  spreading  through  the 
bulk  of  our  highest  society  and  influencing  its 
rising  generation. 

Train  our  young  men  in  the  love  of  the  race,  and 
teach  them  what  appertains  to  our  own  life,  cul- 
ture and  happiness  and  not  fragments  about  Greece 
and  Rome,  and  their  attention  will  be  at  tiptoe. 

It  is  too  absurd  to  study  Latin  and  Greek  for 
the  sake  of  understanding  English  ;  for,  then,  we 
should  have  to  study  the  Sanskrit  and  the  Zend 
also,  and,  with  still  more  reason,  the  Anglo-Saxon, 
Old  English,  the  French  and  the  Provencal.  But 
where  have  we  the  guarantee  for  living  to  an  old 
age  sufficiently  advanced  in  which  we  might  per- 
chance get  at  our  own  mother  tongue  ? 


Classical  and  Scientific  Education.         32 1 

Did  the  Greeks  so  study  their  language?  Why, 
then,  should  we  ours?  To  know  a  language  is  one 
thing,  to  know  its  philology  is  quite  another  thing, 
and  as  a  rule  men  who  know  the  one  are  ignorant  of 
the  other.  The  greatest  grammarians  are  the  poorest 
writers,  and  Homer,  Sophocles,  Dante,  and  Shake- 
speare have  written  before  a  grammar  or  dictionary 
of  their  respective  languages  was  in  existence. 

Political  culture,  parliamentary  eloquence  and 
patriotism,  we  certainly  can  derive  as  well  from  our 
own  countrymen  as  from  the  Greeks  and  the 
Romans,  who  are  hardly  intelligible  to  us  at  a  dis- 
tance of  more  than  two  thousand  years ;  and 
modern  nations,  hke  France  and  England,  so  much 
nearer  and  comprehensible  to  us,  are  more  instruct- 
ive because  more  applicable  to  our  condition,  which 
is  not  unlike  theirs.  Or  must  we  go  to  Greece 
and  Rome  to  learn  to  be  Americans  ? 

There  is  unquestionably  beauty  in  the  severe 
simplicity  of  the  works  of  art  of  the  Greeks,  but  the 
immaculate  nature  of  the  Greek  ideal  and  its  in- 
approachable excellence  and  perfection  are  dogmas 
akin  to  those  of  the  old  Church  and  the  infallible 
Pope.  The  Greeks  were  no  more  ideal  men  than 
we  or  any  other  can  be.  We  all  are  one  or  another 
thing,  we  are  Greeks,  French,  Germans,  English, 
Americans,  etc.,  and  ideal  men  exist  only  in  the 
imagination. 


322  Classical  and  Scientijic  Education. 

The  world  has  not  stood  still  in  art  no  more  than 
in  any  other  thing,  and  poetry,  sculpture,  painting 
and  architecture  have  advanced  beyond  what  they 
were  in  ancient  Greece,  nothwithstanding  the  as- 
surance of  men  who  would  make  us  believe  the 
ancients  were  infallible  and  immaculate  in  art  and 
in  matters  of  church  and  religion. 

But  let  us  look  a  little  closer  at  this  would-be 
ideal  world  of  the  ancients,  to  which  we  so  anxious- 
ly send  our  sons  and  daughters  for  examples.  Let 
us  look  at  Athens  with  its  narrow,  filthy  streets, 
mean  dwellings,  public  halls  and  temples.  Slaves 
meet  us  at  every  step,  the  temples  are  reeking  with 
the  blood  of  victims,  the  state  is  filled  with  party 
strife,  revolutions  follow  as  fast  upon  one  another 
as  thick  clouds  in  stormy  weather ;  the  great  patri- 
ots are  rewarded  with  ingratitude ;  the  party  that 
wins  murders  the  party  that  loses,  and  plunders  it ; 
the  sweetness  and  sacredness  of  quiet  family  life  is 
hardly  known,  neither  the  amenities  of  modern  life  ; 
newspapers,  picture  galleries,  or  our  quiet  places  of 
amusements  are  not  known ;  boxing,  prizefighting 
and  the  like  pleasures,  are  national ;  war  is  almost 
incessant,  and  the  taxes  are  very  high.  In  Rome 
the  abominable  combats  with  wild  beasts  or  men 
in  the  arena  of  the  colosseum  are  the  great  delight. 
Education  is  left  to  the  slaves;  public  information 
is  at  a  low  ebb  ;  industry  supplies  but  poorly  the 


Classical  and  Scientific  Education.         323 

wants  of  men  ;  a  well-regulated  state  or  religion  is 
not  known ;  superstition  reigns  supreme,  and  the 
flight  of  birds  and  the  mutterings  of  an  epileptic 
priest  decide  the  most  important  political  events 
involving  the  existence  of  the  state. 

It  is  hard  for  us  to  emancipate  ourselves  from  the 
old  Catholic  superstition,  that  there  is  no  soundness 
in  us,  and  that  truth  and  beauty  lived  and  died  with 
the  ancients,  though  the  masses  were  slaves  and 
women  were  treated  not  much  better,  and  infants 
worse.  Strangers  were  called  barbarians,  and  on 
all  possible  occasions  sold  into  slavery.  There  was 
but  little  humanity  in  the  general  arrangements  at 
Athens  and  Rome.  National  pride  and  barbarity 
even  rose  to  the  bloody  infamy  of  human  sacrifices. 
Passion  and  ambition  did  not  recoil  from  civil  war 
and  oppression,  and  rich  as  well  as  poor  were  cor- 
rupt and  venal.  And  from  the  literature  of  such 
nations  our  sons  and  daughters  are  to  learn  hu- 
manity and  ideal  culture  ? 

If  there  is  any  such  ideal  in  their  literature,  the 
tyro,  bewildered  with  the  ten  thousand  difficulties 
besetting  the  reading  of  a  language  dead  for  two 
thousand  years,  cannot  find  it. 

Does  any  one  seriously  contemplate  that  nature, 
painting,  lithographs,  and  drawing  cannot  develop 
our  aesthetic  powers  and  fill  the  place  of  heathen 
mythology?     If  the  gods  of  Olympus  were  really 


324  Classical  and  Scientific  Educaticm. 

so  potent,  we  ought  to  recall  them  by  all  means, 
and  become  pagans  again. 

Modern  nations  need  not  go  for  patriots  and 
statesmen  to  Rome,  with  its  bloody  Caesars,  or 
to  Athens,  with  its  demagogues. 

But  even  if  antiquity  had  unequalled  politicians 
and  historians,  they  would  naturally  be  beyond  the 
comprehension  of  youngsters,  and  would,  therefore, 
be  without  educational  value  to  us. 

Homer,  Sophocles,  Thucydides,  Cicero,  Virgil, 
Horace  and  Tacitus  have  not  written  for  youths, 
who,  not  penetrating  them,  cannot  be  improved 
by  excellencies  which  are  beyond  their  mental  reach. 

As  far  as  composition  is  concerned,  our  modern 
languages,  so  easily  learned  and  so  useful  in  many 
regards — at  least  the  French,  Italian,  German  and 
English — are  as  grand  and  spirited,  and  certainly  as 
logical  and  perspicuous  as  Latin  or  Greek. 

The  shallow  cosmopolitan  indifference  that  un- 
derates  national  pride  and  honor  is  the  forerunner 
of  national  corruption  and  decay.  One  of  the  great 
duties  of  public  Education  is  to  strengthen  and  ele- 
vate the  national  feeling  and  love  of  country,  and 
to  foster  the  better  genius  of  the  nation. 

A  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  English  lan- 
guage, its  poets,  historians  and  philosophers,  would 
far  more  benefit  us  than  the  present  Latin  and 
Greek  pretense. 


Classical  and  Scientific  Education.  325 

Modem  nations  have  poets  equal  to  any  of  an- 
tiquity, and,  certainly,  historians  and  philosophers ; 
but  their  scientific  writers  and  thinkers  are  un- 
questionably more  exact  and  solid  than  any  Greece 
or  Rome  had  produced,  and  these  modern  lan- 
guages and  literatures  are  infinitely  richer  in  pro- 
ductions and  are  more  applicable  to  educational 
purposes  than  the  languages  of  antiquity. 

The  antique  state  was  despotic,  whatever  its 
form  was.  With  modern  nations  freedom  of  the 
individual  and  organic  development  are  founda- 
tion principles  of  civilization,  and  these  we  best 
promote  by  the  study  of  great  modern  authors. 

The  great  Vico  deprecates  the  influence  of  the 
ancient  poets  on  the  passions.  Their  heroes  are 
not  only  without  humanity,  but  even  without  man- 
liness. Agamemnon  pierces  his  unfortunate  sup- 
pliant with  his  spear,  and  setting  his  foot  upon  his 
body  pulled  it  out.  Hector  drags  through  the  dust 
dead  Patrocles,  as  Achilles  does  Hector;  and  the 
Greeks  are  represented,  one  after  another,  stabbing 
the  dead  remains  of  the  latter  hero.  Sovereigns 
are  massacred  and  their  bodies  left  a  prey  to  dogs 
and  vultures;  sucking  infants  are  dashed  agains«- 
the  pavement,  and  ladies  of  highest  rank  are  made 
to  perform  the  lowest  acts  of  slavery.  Blood,  fraud 
and  meanest  cowardice  are  the  features  of  Homer's 
brutal   heroes.      Murder   is   no   sin    with    Homer, 


326  Classical  and  Scioitijic  Education. 

neither  fraud  degrading,  nor  cowardly  skulking  be- 
fore superior  strength  unbefitting  his  heroes,  who, 
being  cruel  and  inhuman,  are  not  truly  heroic, 
though  eminent  for  savagery. 

Hecuba,  in  Euripides,  is  chained  like  a  dog  to 
Agamemnon's  gate.  Prometheus,  in  ^Eschylus,  is 
fastened  by  a  chain,  nailed  one  end  to  a  rock,  and 
the  other  end  to  his  breast  bone.  In  the  Electra 
of  Sophocles  a  woman  is  represented  murdered  by 
her  children.  In.  the  tragedy  of  Alcestis,  Admetus 
insists  upon  his  beloved  wife  to  die  for  him, 
and  scolds  his  father  indecently  to  do  the  same 
thing. 

With  such  brutal  and  cowardly  acts  these  writers 
are  teeming,  and  they  are  held  up  to  us  as  our 
models.  What  wonder,  then,  that  there  is  so  little 
moral  progress  among  us  ! 

We  do  not  like  to  lift  the  veil  from  what  is  most 
reprehensible  in  the  life  and  writings  of  the  ancients. 
Their  bordering  on  the  brute  state  of  man  may  be 
taken  for  an  apology  for  that ;  but  they  must  not 
be  forced  upon  us  as  patterns.  We  may  cut  out  all 
the  passages  in  which  that  animalism  appears  in  all 
its  nudity ;  still,  should  we  clear  the  classics  of  all 
that  springs  from  that  spirit,  little  would  be  left, 
and,  hence,  we  protest  against  the  idolatry  made 
of  the  classics. 

So  coarse  and  indelicate  were  the  Romans  that 


Classical  and  Scientific  Education.  327 

whipping  was  a  punishment  inflicted  on  even  high 
officers  in  the  army. 

To  Hve  by  plunder  was  held  honorable  among  the 
Greeks ;  for  it  was  their  opinion  that  the  rules  of 
justice  are  not  intended  for  the  restriction  of  the 
powerful.  The  policy  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
in  war  was  to  weaken  a  state  by  plundering  its 
territory  and  destroying  its  people. 

The  Romans  eternally  warred  upon  other  nations. 
Let  us  take  Lucullus'  behavior  toward  Cauca,  a 
city  he  attacked,  for  it  is  but  an  illustration  of  other 
similar  acts.  They  surrendered  upon  his  promise 
to  garrison  them  for  their  own  protection.  Instead 
of  which  he  enriched  himself  by  plundering  the 
city,  leaving  20,000  dead  upon  the  spot.  Caesar, 
Pompey,  Crassus  and  all  the  other  Romans  were 
men  of  rapacity  and  lust ;  and  as  their  deeds  are 
learned  by  our  youths  in  an  old  and  difficult  tongue 
they  fall  deep  into  the  soul  and  form  their  hearts 
and  minds  upon  these  execrable  models,  and,  hence, 
our  cruel  disregard  for  the  victims  of  our  greed. 

When  we  consider  men,  such  as  Sir  Robert  Peel, 
Lord  Brougham  or  Ashley,  and  their  life-long 
labors  in  the  British  Parliament  in  behalf  of  the 
working  people,  does  it  not  seem  as  if  the  genius  of 
humanity  and  industry  presides  over  us  to-day,  and 
that  under  its  inspirations  the  rising  generation 
would  make  better  men,  than   under  the  influence 


328  Classical  and  Scientific  Education. 

of  rapacious  Rome  or  cruel  Greece?  It  maybe 
well  for  the  man  to  know  what  was  practiced  at 
Greece,  Rome  or  somewhere  else ;  but  must  we, 
therefore,  make  the  minds  of  our  susceptible  youths 
the  sinks  of  execrable  wickedness  ? 

We  belie,  degrade  and  render  weak  and  ineffi- 
cient our  modern  standard  of  moral  excellency, 
which  is  a  pure  spiritualism,  by  making  our  models 
in  Education  the  ancients,  the  life  and  soul  of  whom 
are  rapacity,  power,  lust,  deep  dissimulation — as 
bloody  Caesar  playing  democrat  or  Cicero  augur, 
consulting  mice  and  chickens  on  mighty  affairs 
of  state — and  a  sensuousness  bordering  on  pure 
animalism. 

Let  none  think  that  the  intellectual  culture,  gen- 
erally derived  from  the  study  of  the  classics,  out- 
weighs the  moral  disadvantages ;  for,  if  we  take 
the  results  of  the  inquiry  of  the  Royal  Commission 
on  Education  of  Great  Britain,  a  most  insignificant 
minority  of  the  students  of  the  best  colleges  of 
England  are  at  all  profited  by  their  Latin  and 
Greek.  "  The  number  of  well  taught  classical 
scholars  at  the  university  notoriously  form  a  small 
proportion."  "  Very  few  coming  from  Christ 
Church,  Oxford,  to  the  university  can  construe 
accurately  in  Latin  or  Greek  a  piece  from  an 
author  they  have  studied.  It  would  be  useless  to 
tr)'  them  with  a  new  passage,  a  test  they  could  not 
stand  at  all." 


Classical  and  Scientific  Education.  329 

Dr.  Fitch  says  before  the  British  Association  for 
Social  Science :  "  Of  the  many  who  have  studied 
Latin,  how  many  of  them  ever  open  a  Latin  book? 
How  many  have  caught  the  spirit  of  ancient  Ro- 
man Hfe  or  pohty,  or  acquired  an  insight  into 
Roman  literature,  or  have  a  trace  of  their  school- 
Latin  left  on  their  minds  and  opinions  ? 

"  The  study  of  the  classics  usually  ceases  before 
the  student  begins  to  profit  by  it,  and  is,  therefore, 
utterly  useless.  It  is  like  mounting  up  a  steep  hill, 
and  then  stop  outside  the  temple  on  the  summit." 

"  The  study  of  the  classics  comes  in  far  too  many 
cases  to  absolutely  nothing  ;  that  it  rather  deadens 
than  awakens  thought  ;  that  it  stimulates  no  liter- 
ary appetite,  and  that  it  is  not  even  indirectly 
helpful  in  enabling  the  pupil  to  write  his  own  lan- 
guage with  fluency  and  grace."  Mr.  Fitch,  speak- 
ing before  the  British  Association  in  this  manner, 
is  recognized  by  this  most  learned  body  as  a  man 
of  great  authority  and  experience  in  Education, 
having  been  the  principal  of  eminent  training  col- 
leges and  holding  the  position  of  one  of  Her  Maj-  ' 
esty's  Inspectors  of  Schools. 

Dr.  Hey  gives  his  testimony  as  to  the  many 
hopeless  youths  sacrificed  in  the  Latin  schools  to 
the  hopeful  few  for  the  sake  of  making  a  good 
verse  maker. 

The  royal  commission  and  the  witnesses  brought 


330  Classical  and  Scientific  Education. 

before  them,  though  all  classical  men,  admit  "  The 
public  Latin  schools  send  out  the  ablest  scholars 
and  also  the  idlest  and  most  ignorant  men."  "  Of 
the  time  spent  at  the  Latin  schools  by  the  gen- 
erality of  boys  much  is  absolutely  thrown  away, 
etc."  "  With  a  great  mass  of  men  it  takes  them  to 
twenty  or  twenty-one  to  construe  a  Latin  and 
Greek  book  they  have  studied  already  at  school, 
to  master  three  books  in  Euclid  and  to  solve  a 
quadratic  equation." 

But,  notwithstanding  these  unwilling  confessions, 
the  very  able  men  of  the  Royal  Commission  on 
Education  are  statesmen,  and  as  long  as  the  dom- 
ineering spirit  and  the  diplomatic  ability  of  pre- 
lates, nobles  and  kings  are  to  be  trained,  for  such 
work  the  schools  of  the  Caesars  and  of  the  Athen- 
ian oligarchs  arc  by  their  nature  most  fit,  and, 
hence,  their  high  encomiums  upon  Latin  and  Greek 
for  the  high  classes  in  society. 

We  see  the  impediment  to  progress  in  so  many 
symbols  as  there  are  words  in  the  Chinese  lan- 
guage, which  the  scholar  has  to  learn  before  he  can 
give  himself  up  to  the  acquisition  of  valuable 
knowledge.  But  is  our  devoting  years  to  Greek 
and  Latin  grammar  any  less  retarding  us  in  our 
progress  ? 

The  question  has  often  been  propounded  before, 
why  do   men   so   rarely  continue   their   Education 


Classical  and  Scientific  Education.         331 

and  self-improvement  on  leaving  school  ?  Our 
answer  is,  because  during  their  school  years  their 
brain  powers  or  molecules  have  been  absorbed  by 
the  impressions  of  useless  things  forced  upon  their 
attention,  and  on  their  entering  the  world  things 
can  make  but  a  dull  impression  on  minds  scribbled 
all  over.  Teach  children  what  has  a  bearing  on 
their  future  occupation,  and  it  will  turn  up  in  their 
mind  with  freshness ;  it  will  shed  light  on  and 
deepen  similar  impressions  and  ideas,  and  form 
between  them  all  possible  interconnections  of  cause 
and  effect,  setting  them  thus  to  think  and  improve 
and  educate  them  through  life. 

Admitting  the  Greeks  and  Romans  were  the  first 
in  civilization  in  the  order  of  time ;  must  we,  on 
that  account,  waste  our  years  on  them  ?  Must  we 
ride  on  a  log  because  this  was  the  shape  and  nature 
of  the  original  wagon  before  the  wheel — not  to 
speak  of  steam  — was  invented  ? 

Much  of  what  we  advance  has  been  said  before 
us  by  Locke,  Vico,  Lord  Kames,  Korner  and  oth- 
ers, but  is  not  less  true  for  that,  and  will  be  re- 
peated after  us  until  it  is  profitably  applied  by  the 
schools. 

Has  there  no  progress  been  made  in  civilization, 
or  the  art  of  thinking  and  writing?  If  the  hundred 
generations  of  philosophers  since  the  days  of  Greece 
and  Rome — for  every  generation   has  its  philo.o- 


332  The  Proper  Employment  of  Time. 

phers — have  not  sufficiently  improved  upon  one 
another  in  that  long  stretch  of  time  so  as  to  lose 
out  of  sight  in  the  gloom  of  the  past  Greece  and 
Rome,  pity  man  and  his  poor  capacity.  He  better 
give  up  at  once  the  futile  attempt  of  ever  learning 
or  knowing  anything  and  set  about  eating  grass 
like  any  other  ox. 

Hosanna !  it  resounds  from  all  over  the  land, 
great  is  the  goddess  Diana !  Let  pedagogues 
moderate  their  shoutings  and  their  fears,  our  rail- 
ings will  injure  neither  the  goddess  nor  their  trade, 
for,  if  peradventure  we  have  said  anything  sensible, 
the  crowd  will  be  sure  not  to  mind  it. 

THE  PROPER  EMPLOYMENT   OF  TIME. 

We  do  not  trust  business  transactions  to  the  un- 
aided memory  ;  why,  then,  should  the  golden  sands 
of  life  be  allowed  to  run  down  without  a  daily  and 
hourly  account  ?  Time,  says  our  immortal  Frank- 
lin, is  not  short,  but  poorly  managed.  The  relations 
of  life  are  too  multifarious  to  be  properly  attended 
to  if  left  at  loose  ends.  Self-knowledge,  so  mate- 
rial to  self-improvement,  requires  an  exact  account 
with  ourselves,  and  the  sages  of  all  ages,  down  to 
Bacon,  Montaigne  and  our  own  Franklin,  have  all 
insisted  upon  managing  our  time  and  keeping  a 
systematic  journal,  in  which  we  render  account  of 
our  hours  and  very  minutes. 


The  Proper  Employment  of  Time.  333 

Such  an  account  will  keep  us  in  mind  that  our 
life  is  not  wholly  our  own,  but  belongs  to  the  race. 
Our  cash  account  does  not  add  to  our  cash — the 
account  of  our  inner  life  is  a  most  valuable  addition 
to  our  spiritual  capital.  We  keep  strict  account  of 
our  means  and  let  the  power  that  creates  them 
float  away  unheeded.  A  continual  watch  over  our 
thoughts,  desires  and  actions  will  grow  into  a 
spontaneous  self-control,  until,  in  the  course  of 
ages,  action,  reflection  and  self-control  will  be  one 
and  inseparable  in  the  race. 

A  strict  training  to  a  steady  and  regular  employ- 
ment of  time  is  an  excellent  means  for  the  forma- 
tion of  habits  which,  growing  functionally  and  or- 
ganic, become  in  the  end  unmistakable  features  of 
the  race. 

Only  through  the  close  observation  of  -the  self- 
recorded  thoughts  and  feelings  of  ages  will  we  at- 
tain a  veritable  mental  science,  which  is  alike  indis- 
pensable for  a  correct  Education,  the  treatment  of 
criminals  and  the  insane,  the  government  of  men 
by  laws,  and  for  a  proper  conduct  in  life. 

To  record  honestly,  therefore,  our  inner  life,  is  to 
lay  a  foundation,  without  which  every  science  of 
man,  his  life,  actions  and  happiness  is  impossible. 

The  slow  moral  progress  is  a  sad  riddle  to  many. 
But  does  improvement  in  morals  not  mean  im- 
provement in  self-government  ?    And  how  can  we 


334  Men,   Women  and  their  Spheres. 

improve  in  this,  if  we  do  not  improve  in  self-knowl- 
edge by  keeping  a  steady  watch  over  the  employ- 
ment of  our  time,  life  and  actions. 

MEN,   WOMEN  AND   THEIR   SPHERES. 

The  preservation  of  the  race  being  the  end  of 
Education,  man,  as  the  natural  provider  of  the 
family,  must  be  industrially  educated  ;  and  woman, 
the  mother  of  the  race  and  the  guardian  of  the 
family,  must  be  brought  up  with  a  view  to  these 
her  natural  functions,  which  are  to-day  sacrificed  in 
a  most  pernicious  manner — both  in  school  as  well 
as  in  the  factory — to  the  most  material  injury  of 
the  race.  Life  is  much  shorter  in  districts  with 
textile  industries,  where  women  work,  as  a  rule,  in 
factories  ;  and  our  daughters,  who  are  put  through 
the  higher  course  of  studies  in  our  seminaries  and 
high  schools,  do  not,  as  a  rule,  enjoy  the  good 
health  their  mothers  did. 

Forgetting  that  language  is  as  often  the  medium 
of  error  or  falsehood  as  of  truth,  we  make  reading, 
writing  and  speaking  the  whole  of  Education.  We 
ought  to  remember  that  the  art  of  reading  and 
writing  is  not  culture,  it  is  the  mere  opportunity 
for  it,  and  is  often  unused  and  forgotten  by  the 
masses  after  they  have  acquired  it.  The  aim  of 
popular  Education  must  be  something  higher  and 
more  substantial.     Next  to  the    preservation  and 


The  Science  of  Things.  335 

improvement  of  the  race,  the  chiefest  care  of  Edu- 
cation must  be  industry,  which  alone  can  lead  to 
universal  culture  and  the  reign  of  eternal  truth  and 
justice,  or  the  kingdom  of  God  upon  earth. 

INDUSTRY,   HEALTH,   COMFORT  AND   HAPPINESS. 

Industry  must  take  the  place  of  sloth  and  idle- 
ness— the  fountain  head  of  pauperism  and  all  the 
hellish  brood  at  its  heel — and  the  satisfaction  aris- 
ing from  an  intelligent  and  well-ordered  activity 
must  banish  the  unhealthy  craving  after  low  pleas- 
ures with  their  demoralizing  effects  upon  individ- 
uals and  communities. 

The  preservation  of  the  race  being  the  true  end 
of  Education,  the  comfort,  health  and  happiness 
of  the  individual  must  be  all  secured,  and,  hence, 
the  science  of  life  must  take  the  place  of  the  empty 
formalism  of  word  teaching.  Food,  fabrics,  houses, 
windows,  stoves,  and  the  bearings  of  the  like 
things  upon  human  health  and  happiness,  are  mat- 
ters falling  under  the  observation  of  the  senses, 
plain  to  the  young  understanding,  and  are  best 
suited  to  prepare  for  further  scientific  knowledge 
and  practical  work. 

THE   SCIENCE   OF  THINGS. 

The  science  of  things  and  common  sense  must 
be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  health  and  comfort  ot 


336  The  Science  of  Things. 

the  individual,  and  our  elementary  course  of  in- 
struction must  be  made  as  full  of  things  as  it  has 
hitherto  been  full  of  words. 

The  effort  scientific  England  is  making  to  lift  up 
the  masses  to  a  higher  level  of  culture  and  well- 
being  through  spreading  among  them  the  rudi- 
ments of  a  scientific  knowledge  of  the  things  of 
life,  art  and  industry,  industrial  training,  cheap 
publications,  art,  industrial  and  economical  mu- 
seums, command  our  attention,  and  exhort  us  to 
enter  with  like  earnestness  upon  the  same  work. 

French,  piano,  dancing-masters,  and  the  semi- 
barbarous,  haughty  and  disgusting  airs  of  ridiculous 
vanity  notwithstanding,  as  far  as  solid  excellency 
is  concerned  and  the  things  leading  to  usefulness, 
efficiency,  health,  comfort,  goodness  and  happiness, 
not  the  first  step  has  as  yet  been  taken  in  raising 
man  rightly ;  and  yet  this  is  the  highest  work  of 
the  state  as  well  as  of  the  family. 

We  grow,  of  course,  by  the  law  of  nature  and  by 
necessity ;  but  man  ought  to  be  his  own  maker 
and  the  state  ought  to  he  a  providence  shaping  man 
to  a  noble  purpose.  There  is  nothing  greater  nor 
more  divinely  beautiful  than  a  noble  man  or  wom- 
an, and  the  time  will  come  and  is  even  near  at  hand 
when  a  child  from  the  cradle  to  full  maturity  will 
be  physically,  morally,  intellectually  and  industri- 
ally the  tender  care  of  the  state  as  well  as  of  the 
family. 


The  Cultivation  of  Altruism.  337 

If  the  system  we  propose  is  utilitarian,  our  prin- 
ciple of  utility  is  of  the  highest  order,  referring,  as 
it  does,  to  the  preservation  and  improvement  of 
the  race.  To-day,  alas !  we  make  money,  and 
unmake  man ;  but  we  shall  soon  find  out  that 
even  in  the  material  order  of  things  the  making  of 
man  must  precede  the  making  of  money.  An 
efficient  industry  requires  health  and  science,  and 
a  prosperous  commerce  is  impossible  without  con- 
fidence and  honesty,  which  rest  upon  a  universal 
moral  consciousness. 

THE   CULTIVATION   OF  ALTRUISM. 

We  may  daily  hear  in  the  shops  or  read  in  the 
works  of  philosophers  that  old  prejudices  are  dying 
away  and  new  ideas  are  acquired,  but  society  is  not 
improved.  Still,  John  Stuart  Mill  adds  in  his  me- 
moirs, this  cannot  be  due  to  the  unalterable  dis- 
position or  nature  of  man.  For  just  as  well  as  Edu- 
cation, habit  and  public  opinion  make  men  willing 
to  fight  and  die  for  the  state,  they  can  also  be  dis- 
posed to  work  for  the  good  of  society. 

Race  Education  as  a  whole  and  a  system  re- 
placing selfish  individualism  by  an  altruistic  dis- 
position rendered  hereditary  by  the  training  of 
generations,  will  ultimately  save  humanity  from 
the  miseries  and  troubles  of  the  present  fratricidal 
struggle,  and  mitigates  the  want  and  the  sufferings 
15 


338     Laborers  Must  Make  their  Otvn  Market. 

of  the  masses  of  to-day  by  insisting  upon  a  varied 
industrial  training  as  one  of  the  chief  elements  in 
the  Education  of  the  people. 

LABORERS   MUST   MAKE   THEIR   OWN   MARKET. 

The  connection  between  ever-recurring  stagna- 
tions of  trade  and  the  uncertainties  of  foreign  com- 
merce has  long  been  noticed,  but  the  deeper  and 
more  universal  cause  of  the  restriction  of  the  home 
market,  and  its  possible  removal,  have  hitherto  es- 
caped economists.  The  producing  masses  living  in 
large  cities  have  no  means  left  for  purchasing  man- 
ufactured articles,  rent  and  provisions  consuming 
their  wages.  With  our  present  powers  of  locomo- 
tion, this  difficulty  can  be  surmounted,  and  the  ex- 
cess of  the  mischief  of  city  life  in  every  other  direc- 
tion, as  life,  health  and  Education,  will  soon  force 
us  to  seek  relief  from  these  and  other  troubles  in 
suburban  residence. 

The  reader  may  suspect  us  of  forgetting  that  we 
are  writing  about  Education,  as  we  obviously  lose 
sight  altogether  of  Latin,  Greek,  grammar,  stump- 
speaking  and  the  like  school  accomplishments  of 
the  present  day,  considering,  as  we  do,  mainly  the 
housing,  clothing  and  feeding  of  the  people,  their 
health  and  decent  living,  all  of  which  being  achieved 
not  so  much  by  each  striving  for  himself  as  for  hu- 
manity, we  leave  refinement  and  culture  to  take 


Laborers  Must  Make  their  Oivn  Market.    339 

care  of  themselves.  To  this  we  plead  guilty,  but 
hope  for  an  honorable  acquittal  at  the  bar  of  the 
future. 

The  present  movement  of  the  population  toward 
large  cities  gives  ascendency  to  deteriorating  ten- 
dencies, and  is  an  important  question  of  civilization. 

For,  if  the  people  are  not  sound  in  body,  neither 
can  they  be  sound  in  mind,  government,  or  poli- 
tics. Corrupt  blood  necessarily  produces  corrupt 
morals  and  institutions.  The  hectic  flush  of  a  con- 
sumptive people  is  apt  to  repeat  itself  in  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  state  and  government,  as  private 
madness  is  apt  to  end  in  public  folly,  and  private 
suicides  in  civil  war,  in  which  a  nation  ends  its  own 
life. 

All  great  statesmen,  writers  and  economists  agree 
that  nothing  is  more  apt  to  lay  a  firm  foundation 
for  social  order  and  conservative  interests  in  a  so- 
ciety of  democratic  tendencies  than  a  multitude 
of  small  property  owners,  in  whom  the  state  is 
always  certain  to  find  the  element  of  order  and 
the  spirit  of  industry  and  peace.  This  system  of 
small  properties,  introduced  by  Napoleon  in  France 
and  wherever  his  arms  proved  victorious,  has  been 
long  on  trial ;  and  the  economy,  the  prudence,  the 
industry,  the  order  it  spreads,  have  everywhere 
brought  it  in  favor.  The  wildest  revolutionary 
elements  of  the  large  cities  of  France  have  been 


;40  Laborers  Must  Make  their  Own  Market. 

inavailing  against  it ;  and  in  this  republic,  too, 
lothing  but  a  solid  wall  of  small  industrial  property 
Dwners  will  secure  the  peace  of  society. 

Capitalists  will  find  it  as  well  to  their  advantage 
as  to  the  advantage  of  the  laborers  to  locate  in  the 
country.  And  how  vastly  preferable  is  to  the  young 
the  companionship  of  nature  with  her  sublimities 
and  beauties  to  the  dense  city  with  its  crowded 
lanes  and  squalid  abodes — nurseries  of  meanness, 
vice  and  crime. 

Capital,  labor,  human  life,  government  and  civili- 
zation would  not  only  be  great  gainers  by  the  in- 
dustrial classes  domiciling  themselves  on  the  lands 
surrounding  our  large  cities,  but  their  very  exist- 
ence imperatively  demands  it,  as  the  moral  poison 
engendered  where  great  masses  of  population  con- 
centrate, is  positively  destructive  to  the  social  health 
of  society. 

The  city  breeds  moral,  social,  economical  and 
political  pests  and  is  the  hearth  of  general  disorder. 
Vice,  crime  and  corruption  among  high  and  low 
are  at  home  there.  Close  contact  between  the 
rich  and  opulent  and  the  poor  and  the  miserable, 
fills  the  latter  with  bitterness,  which  ends  in  strikes 
and  agrarian  disorders.  Matrimonial  bonds,  reck- 
lessly formed  by  the  hopeless  laborer,  swell  the 
population  beyond  reason.  Then  come  the  pests, 
crowding  breeds,  which  are  more  destructive,  be- 


Laborers  Must  Make  their  Ozvji  Market.    341 

cause  more  constant  than  the  pests  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  In  three  generations  the  city  laborers  are 
swept  away  with  nothing  left  behind  them  but 
plenty  of  graves,  showing  by  their  small  size  that 
their  occupants  had  but  few  days  here,  and  these 
full  of  misery.  The  country  population  fills  the 
gap,  to  be  soon  swept  away  like  those  of  whom 
they  took  the  place.  And  thus  the  moloch  of  the 
city  devours  the  children  of  the  land,  until  all 
health  is  gone.  In  the  moral  confusion  attending 
such  social  corruption  the  turbulent  and  the  am- 
bitious soon  find  their  account,  and  the  govern- 
ment proves  as  short-lived  as  the  people. 

The  country  gives  the  laborer  a  home ;  it  gives 
him  plenty  of  heaven's  pure  air,  light,  pleasure, 
sensibility,  happiness,  contentment,  health,  energy 
and  peace  and  good-will.  It  gives  him  stability, 
character  and  efficiency,  and  personal  consideration. 
In  the  city  he  dies  from  want  of  all  this.  His  heart 
fills,  therefore,  with  bitterness.  He  is  a  houseless, 
forlorn  vagabond,  full  of  unrest  and  unstable,  with- 
out property,  a  home  or  anything  to  live  for  or  to 
look  forward  to  and  hope  for.  He  feels  as  an  out- 
cast, an  Ishmacl,  with  everybody's  hand  against  him, 
and  his  hand  is,  therefore,  against  everybody. 

An  intelligent  and  industrious  people,  with  our 
vast  country  for  our  home,  under  the  sweet  influ- 
ences of  green  fields  and  the  smiles  of  the  wide 


342    Laborers  Must  Make  their  Oivii  Market. 

heavens  upon  us,  our  future  might  be  as  long  as 
God's  own  years ;  but  double  our  tenement  popu- 
lation and  we  perish.  Still,  how  is  it  with  London, 
Paris,  Berlin,  Vienna  and  the  like  cities  ?  Well, 
they  are  hotbeds  of  revolution,  burning  craters 
watched  by  half  a  million  of  soldiers,  whose  organi- 
zations can  only  be  kept  up  by  an  occasional  war 
costing  the  trifle  of  a  half  a  milliard. 

But  what  has  all  this  to  do  with  Education? 
Simply  this,  that  with  a  tenement  population  the 
Education  of  the  heart,  mind  and  morals  is  abso- 
lutely impossible. 

A  healthy  community  is  impossible  without  the 
union  of  the  schoolhouse,  the  home  and  the  work- 
shop, symbolical  of  the  head,  heart  and  stomach 
of  which  they  have  respectively  to  take  care. 

The  sacredness  of  human  life  is  the  ethical  aspect 
of  Education,  the  natural  function  of  which  we  have 
shown  to  be  self-preservation. 

The  bloody  strife  has  but  been  transferred  from 
the  battle-field  to  the  exchange,  but  the  victims 
are  as  vitally  affected  in  the  one  case  as  in  the 
other.  If  common  laborers  are  not  sure  of  their 
to-morrow's  bread,  capitalists  are  no  more  safe  nor 
spared  ;  though  with  them  it  may  be  a  matter  of 
months  or  of  a  few  years.  According  to  mercantile 
statistics  but  5  merchants  in  100  in  Boston,  4  in 
100  in  New  York  City  and  3  in  100  in  Philadelphia 
succeed  in  business. 


Laborers  Must  Make  their  Own  Market.    343 

The  fact  is,  modern  life  has  not  as  yet  accommo- 
dated itself  to  the  great  revolution  of  our  grand 
industry  working  with  steam  and  machinery. 

The  riew  system  requires  manufacturing  on  the 
largest  scale  for  the  largest  market.  Cheap  manu- 
facturing alone  does  not  answer ;  for,  when  wages 
are  very  low,  the  masses  cannot  be  consumers  of 
articles  of  manufacture  ;  business  comes,  therefore, 
to  a  standstill  and  a  deadly  stagnation  follows. 

As  international  commerce  has  taught  us  that 
the  prosperity  of  neighboring  nations  is  indispen- 
sable to  our  own  national  success,  so  does  the 
necessity  of  a  home  market  teach  us  the  necessity 
of  caring  for  the  prosperity  of  our  own  people. 

Nothing  but  a  thorough  industrial  Education 
and  understanding  of  the  economical  interests  of 
society  can  lead  to  the  necessary  union  between 
labor  and  capital,  and  give  peace  and  prosperity 
to  the  present  disturbed  and  suffering  industrial 
world. 

As  machinery  is  expensive,  rapidly  wearing  out 
and  liable  to  be  superseded  by  mechanical  improve- 
ments, it  must  be  used  to  its  full  power,  especially 
as  the  additional  cost  is  not  at  all  in  proportion  to 
the  increased  production,  and,  hence,  the  tendency 
to  over-production,  over-trading,  financial  crises, 
business  stagnations  and  want  of  employment.  But 
even  in  times  of  prosperity  the  usual  trades  cannot 
afford  to  pay  for  the  labor  of  one  man  wages  suf- 


344   Laborers  Must  Make  their  Own  Market. 

ficient  to  buy  for  his  family  bread,  meat,  lard,  but- 
ter, milk,  vegetables,  clothing,  to  pay  his  house  rent, 
incidental  house  expenses  and  insure  him  against 
sickness  and  death.  It  is  evident  a  man  must  have 
all  this  ;  still  his  claim  upon  it  is  not  a  question  of 
right,  but  of  fact.  Does  he  produce  it  ?  he  certainly 
does  not.  Communism,  socialism  or  co-operation 
do  not  solve  this  problem,  which  becomes  more 
troublesome  daily  with  the  increase  of  improved 
machinery,  the  increase  of  population  and  the  de- 
crease of  real  wages.  To  our  mind  there  is  but 
one  solution  of  the  social  question  arising  from  the 
new  condition  of  things,  which  is,  in  proportion  as 
the  increase  of  improved  machinery  supersedes  hu- 
man exertions,  man  must  employ  his  labor  more 
upon  the  soil,  in  which  rooted,  he  will  like  a  firm  tree 
weather  every  storm.  Every  workman  must  have 
his  house  and  his  acre,  he  must  raise  his  meat,  his 
milk,  his  butter,  his  vegetables,  live  rent  free,  and 
with  his  factory  labor  he  must  provide  for  all  other 
family  wants.  There  is  hope  and  encouragement 
in  the  acquisition  of  a  homestead.  A  man  should 
not  be  paralyzed  by  the  fear  of  houseless  misery, 
neither  should  all  his  wants  be  secured  to  him  with- 
out the  full  display  of  his  energies  in  his  daily  labor. 
The  rendition  of  man  to  the  soil  removes  a  thou- 
sand complications. 

Unscrupulous  demagogues  incite  the  masses  to 


Laborers  Must  Make  their  Own  Market.    345 

claim  the  share  due  to  capital.  Thoughtless  capi- 
talists propose  no  remedy,  and  call  upon  the  armed 
power  to  put  down  the  strikers  who,  of  course,  have 
no  right  to  disturb  the  public  peace.  But  hunger 
does  not  stand  upon  right,  it  asks  for  bread.  Mean- 
while riot  upon  riot  demoralizes  the  people,  class 
is  arrayed  against  class,  and  anarchy  and  despotism 
are  growing  upon  us  until  at  last  we  cannot  sleep 
in  peace  without  an  army  standing  watch  over  us, 
and  industry  is  ground  between  the  upper  stone  or 
a  standing  army  and  the  nether  stone  or  the  starv- 
ing masses,  and  the  expenses  in  which  they  involve 
the  state  in  a  thousand  ways.  To  some  there  may 
be  no  problem  in  our  present  social  condition ; 
bayonets  and  starvation  will  mellow  down  the 
work-people  to  work  at  half  starvation  wages.  But 
if  the  masses  are  half  starved,  who  are  to  be  our 
customers?  and  a  system  of  labor  which  converted 
the  people  into  a  herd  of  vicious  criminals  and 
incendiaries  is  dear  at  any  rate.  We  must  improve 
the  condition  of  the  masses,  for  with  them  we  live 
or  sink  in  the  end.  Whatever  assists  the  people 
in  moving  from  the  city  to  the  country  and  aids 
them  in  acquiring  homes  there,  contributes  to  the 
health,  peace  and  prosperity  of  society,  and  spreads 
a  healthy  civilization. 

We  have  been  driven  to  the  conclusion,  as  ma- 
chinery supersedes  human  hands,  labor  must  employ 
15* 


346   Laborers  Must  Make  their  Oivn  Market. 

itself  on  the  soil ;  but  this  is  but  half  and  perhaps 
the  lesser  half  of  the  truth  ,  the  more  important 
part  is,  as  the  production  of  our  material  wants 
needs  less  labor,  more  labor  will  be  bestowed  upon 
man  himself  and  upon  his  Education,  and  as  this 
will  be  better  understood,  the  blessings  of  machin- 
ery will  be  more  appreciated.  The  fewer  hands 
are  needed  for  the  production  of  articles  of  com- 
fort, the  more  and  the  longer  can  children  be  left 
to  the  school  and  its  humanizing  influences,  and 
the  more  can  woman  devote  herself  in  the  school 
and  the  family  to  the  work  of  Education,  fitting 
humanity  for  peace,  for  order,  for  love  and  for 
happiness ;  and  the  more  can  be  shortened  the 
hours  of  labor  and  manly  toil  mingle  with  study 
and  contemplation. 

We  dwell  here  only  upon  physical  deterioration 
and  its  effect  upon  morals.  But  the  action  of  every 
mental  and  moral  power  and  faculty  oscillates  be- 
tween extremes,  and,  hence,  the  constant  tendency 
toward  aberration  from  the  perfect  and  the  danger 
of  mental  and  moral  deterioration. 

At  one  phase  of  civilization  the  reason  and  con- 
science of  the  age  are  all  in  a  torpor ;  at  another, 
the  one  is  all  subtlety  and  the  other  sensitive  to 
morbidity.  And  even  at  the  same  age  all  phases 
of  civilization  are  simultaneously  produced  in  peo- 
ple living  in  different  conditions. 


Laborers  Must  Make  their  Own  Market.    347 

One  end  of  society  living  in  want  of  everything 
inclines  to  brutality,  while  the  other  end  living  in 
luxury  runs  into  effeminacy  leading  to  corruption 
of  another  sort. 

The  animalism  of  the  masses  must  be  corrected 
by  the  application  of  science  to  the  common  occu- 
pations of  life,  and  the  effeminacy  of  the  over-refined 
must  be  overcome  by  the  association  of  physical 
labor  and  exercise  with  intellectual  culture ;  for 
reason  and  the  senses  are  correctives  of  one  another, 
and  must  prevent  the  brutality  of  barbarism  and 
the  corruption  of  over-refinement ;  and,  hence,  we 
see  the  necessity  of  combining  science  and  indus- 
trial pursuits  with  the  customary  branches  of  Edu- 
cation as  the  correctives  of  the  respective  vices  of 
the  classes  which  occupy  the  opposite  extremes  in 
society. 

Disparaging  these  opposite*  vicious  tendencies, 
and  favoring  science  and  genuine  culture,  we  dis- 
card but  scholastic  verbalism,  as  out  of  time  and 
place  in  the  industrial  world  of  to-day. 

The  struggle  for  existence  is  as  inexorable  a  factor 
in  society  as  it  is  in  nature,  and  that  Education  isy 
therefore,  the  best  zvhich,  increasing  tJie  bread-win- 
ning capacity  of  the  masses,  sustains  them  in  that 
struggle  and  gives  them  a  chance  under  the  lazv  of 
the  survival  of  the  fittest :  and  that,  Industrial 
Education  alone  can  accoffiplish. 


PART    VI. 


THE   PEOPLE   AND   THEIR   HOMES. 

As  the  homes  are  so  are  the  people,  is  an  adage 
Race  Education  cannot  afford  to  overlook.  The 
shell  is  no  more  part  of  the  oyster  than  the  home 
is  part  of  the  man,  who  is  more  made  by  his  home 
than  his  home  by  him.  What  light  and  heat  are 
to  the  plant,  home  is  to  man.  As  climatic  influ- 
ences modify  organic  forms,  so  does  home,  the 
climate  of  man,  ever  modify  man  and  his  faculties. 

The  plant  is  no  more  rooted  in  the  soil  than  man 

is.     Myriads    of  ages    man    has   wandered    in    the 

forests  and  green  fields  under  the  sweet  influences 

of  the  azure  sky,  and  their  presence  is  to  him  health 

and  strength.      This  ocean    of  light   and    beauty 

streaming  into  the  eye  is  the  quickening  power  of 

the  life  and  activity  of  the  brain  and  the  nervous 

system,  to  which   it   is  what  the  vivifying  air  is  to 

the  blood.     Death  and  disease,  like  vice  and  crime 

and  every  other  poison,  ripen  in  the  shade,  and  are 

in  very  deed  the  work  of  darkness.     Place  man  in 

his  correct  relation  to  nature,  and  every  possible 
(348) 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  349 

discord  disappears  from  the  individual  and  collect- 
ive life  of  man. 

The  country  is  man's  natural  home.  In  the  city 
his  health  deteriorates  and  his  intellect  degenerates 
by  lack  or  excess  of  mental  exercise ;  luxury  or 
want  debases  his  morals ;  politically  he  is  made  the 
dupe  of  demagogues  or  is  enslaved  by  tyrants  ;  his 
life  is  shortened,  his  very  type  is  lowered,  until  with- 
in a  few  generations  the  stock  itself  becomes  extinct. 

What  disadvantages  attach  to  the  homes,  or 
rather  barracks,  of  the  masses  in  the  city,  which  are 
insalubrious  in  respect  to  light,  heat,  air,  dampness, 
soil,  construction  and  surroundings,  besides  the 
effect  of  fearful  crowding,  deadly  competition, 
temptations  to  vice  and  crime,  evil  associations, 
causes  and  opportunities  for  envy,  hate  and  strife, 
while  in  the  country  all  the  elements  and  surround- 
ings contribute  to  strengthen  and  invigorate  man 
for  his  work  and  his  duties,  everything  calming  his 
passions  and  supporting  his  reason. 

We  hold  with  the  old  tradition  that  man  is  not 
made  to  become  Godlike  in  knowledge,  but  to 
work  the  ground ;  and  this  command  to  cultivate 
the  earth  of  which  we  are  taken — which  nurses  us 
and  to  which  we  return — is  binding  alike  upon 
princes,  poets,  tailors  or  presidents.  We  are  all 
better  off  by  complying  with  it,  and  invariably  suf- 
fer for  disobeying  it. 


350  The  People  and  their  Homes. 

Every  school  should  cultivate  a  taste  for  agricul- 
ture as  well  as  for  the  mechanic  arts.  An  hour  or 
two  daily  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  a  garden 
patch  will  add  to  our  effectiveness  in  our  calling 
by  improving  our  health  of  body  and  soul,  by  en- 
livening us  through  change  of  labor  or  exercise,  and 
by  bringing  us  into  a  more  living  sympathy  with 
nature,  and  the  great  masses,  whose  whole  life  is 
devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  the  ground. 

It  has  been  well  observed  that  as  development 
in  the  organic  world  depends,  according  to  Darwin, 
on  variability  and  permanency  in  the  genesis  of 
forms,  so  is  social  improvement  conditioned  by  le- 
gality and  progress  or  conservatism  and  reform — 
which  are  in  the  political  world,  what  the  centri- 
petal and  centrifugal  forces  are  in  the  cosmos,  and 
of  which  the  one  would  end  in  the  rigidity  of  death 
while  the  other  would  bring  infinite  division  and 
atomic  isolation. 

The  city  represents  change  and  reform.  The  in- 
dividual is  driven  from  position  to  position  by  a 
mass  of  events  he  cannot  control.  We  are  changed 
and  carried  away  by  a  whirlwind  of  events.  We 
hardly  can  collect  ourselves  or  assimilate  facts  and 
experience  into  elements  of  internal  growth,  char- 
acter and  a  harmonious  individuality. 

The  country  is  conservative.  There  man  can 
master    the    impressions  whicli    rush   in   upon  him 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  351 

with  less  impetuosity ;  and  as  they  are  coming  less 
from  the  heated  strife  of  an  artificial  world  and 
more  from  objects  of  nature,  their  effect  upon  man 
is  invigorating  and  less  apt  to  incline  him  to 
feverish  activity. 

Organization,  stability  and  law  were  of  the 
greatest  necessity,  when  in  the  infancy  of  the  race 
communities  were  forming,  and,  hence,  the  agri- 
cultural state  in  which  the  legal  and  conservative 
spirit  predominates  was  then  most  conducive  to 
human  civilization.  After  men  have  become  order- 
loving,  cities  best  serve  the  cause  of  civilization, 
by  bringing  life,  motion  and  progress  into  human 
affairs.  The  present  system  of  manufacture  causes 
a  steady  rush  into  already  populous  cities,  and  dis- 
turbs the  balance  between  the  two  principles  of 
permanence  and  reform,  represented  by  country 
and  city,  the  union  of  which  our  means  of  com- 
munication render  feasible,  as  the  space  our  dwell- 
ings spread  over  becomes  daily  a  matter  of  less  im- 
portance, as  we  annihilate  it  by  the  power  of  steam. 

By  associating  the  conditions  of  city  and  country 
life,  we  unite  the  progressive  tendencies  of  the  one 
with  the  conservative  of  the  other,  and  thus  keep 
up  a  healthy  social  development,  while  the  country 
alone  leads  to  death  through  stagnation,  and  the 
city  through  revolution  to  anarchy  and  dissolution. 

Freedom  is  the  chief  element   of  man's  moral 


352  TJic  People  and  their  Homes. 

nature.  But  freedom  is  a  fiction  without  power 
which  property  of  some  sort  or  other  bestows. 
There  is  hardly  manhood  or  dignity  without  as 
much  property  as  will  give  a  man  standing  room 
in  the  world.  Property  is,  therefore,  a  moral  neces- 
sity. In  the  Middle  Ages,  when  the  feudal  lords 
owned  the  land,  the  industries  in  the  cities  gave  the 
people  a  moral  existence  by  giving  them  an  oppor- 
tunity to  achieve  property.  To-day,  when  the 
manufacturing  interests  in  the  cities  are  owned  by 
our  industrial  lords,  the  people  must  acquire  homes 
and  property  in  the  country  or  become  again  penni- 
less vagabonds  without  moral  or  political  existence, 
the  slaves  of  a  rdgiine  more  powerful  than  any  of 
the  past. 

Manufacturing  in  large  cities  must  give  way  to 
manufacturing  all  over  the  country,  or  the  deteri- 
oration arising  from  trade  diseases,  combined  with 
the  deterioration  peculiar  to  crowded  cities,  will  de- 
generate humanity.  And  this  putting  side  by  side 
the  manufacturer  and  the  agriculturist,  or  the  cotton 
and  wool  raiser  with  the  spinner  and  weaver,  is  the 
solution  of  many  a  troublesome  problem  in  social 
philosophy.  For  it  decreases  the  machinery  of 
transporting  raw  material  and  manufactured  goods 
and  turns  men  and  capital  engaged  in  the  carrying 
trade  into  manufacturing,  which  is  enlarged,  while 
commerce,  speculation,  bank  operations,  panics-- 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  353 

always  springing  up  from  the  latter  or  sudden  call- 
ing in  of  credit — business  stagnations  and  public 
distress  will  be  lessened. 

Land  without  men  and  men  without  land  are 
equally  valueless.  Combined  they  enhance  each 
other's  value.  In  proportion  as  men  crowd  into 
small  areas,  the  land  reaches  a  fabulous  figure  and 
a  man's  worth  falls  below  that  of  the  brute. 

Let  men  spread  all  over  the  land,  and  the  value 
of  both  will  be  equally  enhanced.  Henry  C.  Carey 
says  with  much  truth,  by  this  law  alone  we  can 
escape  the  miseries  and  not  far-off  revolutions  of 
England,  the  civilization  of  which  is  the  last  an 
honest  republic  would  try  to  install.  Not  foreign 
commerce,  but  home  trade  and  manufacture  we 
must  enlarge ;  the  first  is  full  of  danger  and  uncer- 
tainties, the  latter  is  safe  and  reliable.  A  country 
with  resources  sufficient  for  the  support  of  200  mil- 
lions population  can  grandly  prosper  on  the  inter- 
nal trade  and  manufacture  of  an  industrial  popula- 
tion of  fifty  millions. 

England,  not  as  large  as  many  a  one  of  our  forty 
states,  and  with  colonies  all  over  the  globe,  seeks 
above  all,  foreign  commerce  ;  and  its  economists 
pretend  to  favor  this  course  upon  scientific  princi- 
ples. But  a  glance  at  the  condition  of  England 
shows  that  foreign  commerce  carried  on  to  excess 
is  a  curse  to  any  nation. 


354  TJi€  People  and  their  Homes. 

According  to  a  late  competent  observer  the  ditc 
of  skilled  mechanics  in  England,  by  rigid  economy, 
ma\'  manage  to  subsist  in  tolerable  comfort,  though 
not  without  the  wolf  growling  audibly  at  the  door. 

Next  rank  the  wages  of  the  skilled  craftsman. 
After  supplying  him  with  clothes  and  shelter,  they 
leave  him  about  half  enough  to  eat.  Half-starved 
clerks  may  be  ranked  with  this  class. 

Farm  laborers,  porters  and  the  regular  employ- 
ees of  commerce,  systematically  famish  upon  their 
wages. 

Next  comes  the  job  laborer,  who  fasts  when  he 
can  get  work,  and  starves  when  he  is  without  it. 

Lower  yet  is  the  shop  girl,  on  duty  fifteen  hours 
a  day,  for  a  pittance  inadequate  to  the  supply  of  her 
necessary  wants — the  seamstress  earning  four  shil- 
lings a  week,  slowly  dying  of  over-work  and  priva- 
tion— and  the  servant  girl  to  whom  is  doled  out  a 
shilling  a  week  and  one  hour  recreation  once  a 
fortnight. 

Lower  still  are  millions  without  regular  work,  or 
home,  or  food,  hopeless,  starving,  dying — literally 
dying  upon  doorsteps,  where  they  have  crowded 
for  shelter  under  hedges,  where  they  have  lain 
down  from  the  wind  ;  upon  heaps  of  ordure,  where 
they  have  groveled  for  the  warmth  derived  from  the 
recking  exhalations.  The  cities  of  England  are 
crowded  with  this  unhappy  class  of  beings.     They 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  355 

meet  the  eye  upon  every  street — too  numerous  to 
attract  attention  or  sympathy. 

Thus  the  very  ehte  of  labor  in  England  is  famine- 
pinched  and  hunger-driven.  Millions  pine,  hope- 
less, joyless,  slowly  famishing  upon  wages  insuf- 
ficient for  subsistence,  and  the  homeless  outcasts  of 
the  cities  perish  for  want  of  employment. 

With  such  a  certificate  from  the  famishing  masses 
of  England,  we  must  be  excused  if,  without  giving 
here  any  further  reasons,  we  prefer  our  American 
system  to  the  commercial  system  of  England,  in 
which  there  is  no  more  science  than  in  the  lion  on 
the  British  flag. 

We  dwell  on  the  economical  aspects  of  homes 
and  dwellings,  for  whatever  produces  wealth  pro- 
duces health  and  strength  and  civilization,  and 
whatever  destroys  wealth  destroys  life  and  health, 
and  spreads  all  the  evils  attending  barbarism. 

There  is  no  more  powerful  agency  than  home. 
Schools  and  compulsory  laws  are  of  no  effect  with- 
out it,  and  whatever  undermines  it  must  be  put 
down  as  most  hostile  to  the  cause  of  civilization. 

Expensiveness  of  living  in  large  towns  makes 
pregnant  mothers  overwork  themselves  to  the  very 
hour  of  delivery,  the  result  of  which  in  the  newly- 
born  child  is  marasmus — constitutional  Aveakness — 
the  natural  disease  of  the  higher  stages  of  old  age. 
The  same  cause  necessitates  them  to  work  in  fac- 


356  The  People  and  their  Ilovies. 

tories  and  to  deprive  their  infants  of  their  most 
natural  food — the  mother's  milk — through  which 
they  fall  tenfold  a  prey  to  disease  and  death. 

The  same  expensiveness  of  living  in  large  towns 
forces  mothers  to  go  out  to  work  and  leave  their 
little  ones  locked  up  in  an  empty  room  where  brutal 
isolation  trains  them  to  idiocy. 

This  same  expensiveness  of  living  in  large  towns 
which  has  forced  the  mothers  to  leave  their  home 
for  the  factory,  forces  children  to  leave  the  school 
for  the  same  place,  and  thus  deprives  the  masses 
of  their  Education  and  the  means  of  bettering  their 
condition.  Worse  than  all  this,  a  home  without  a 
wife,  without  children,  without  any  attractiveness, 
in  which  hardly  anything  but  misery,  death  and 
disease  are  bred,  make  the  family  burdensome  to 
men  and  women  who,  shunning  such  a  state,  avoid 
marriage  and  live  in  all  sorts  of  vicious  indulgences, 
ending  in  crime  and  corruption  and  the  dissolution 
of  society.  All  this  may  be  of  no  moment  to  some 
men,  but  the  expensiveness  of  living  in  large  towns 
absorbs  all  the  earnings  of  the  work-people  for  bare 
bread  and  shelter,  and  leaves  them  no  means  for 
procuring  articles  of  manufacture.  This,  too,  may 
be  of  no  importance  to  some.  But  when  the  masses 
do  not  buy,  the  small  traders  do  not  sell.  This 
looks  a  little  more  serious  and  assumes  its  full  im- 
portance when  wc  consider  that,  if  the  retailers  do 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  357 

not  sell,  neither  can  they  buy,  nor  can  the  whole- 
sale man  sell  or  the  factory  manufacture,  and,  hence, 
misery  and  stagnation  overtake  all  classes. 

The  masses  may  be  the  lowest  and  least  notice- 
able portion  of  the  community,  but  it  is  also  the 
foundation  of  the  whole  structure  and  the  pyramid 
of  society,  which  tumbles  into  the  dust  when  its 
broad  basis  is  withdrawn. 

There  is  not  a  consideration  of  health,  life  or 
death,  of  Education,  morals,  government  or  econo- 
mics but  is  in  favor  of  workmen's  homes  in  the 
country.  But  facts  speak  louder  than  arguments, 
and  we  shall  turn  our  attention  to  them,  as  we  are 
convinced  that  we  serve  best  the  cause  of  Educa- 
tion by  urging  homes  for  the  people.  For,  if  the 
people  have  good  homes — if  they  have  schools  or 
not — they  have  the  best  part  of  a  good  Education 
anyhow ;  while,  if  they  have  no  homes,  the  best 
schools  are  but  whited  sepulchres  full  of  dead  bones. 

To  illustrate  the  condition  of  the  people  and  their 
dwellings  in  populous  factory  towns,  we  need  not 
cross  the  ocean.  Writing  in  the  midst  of  a  city  of 
over  half  a  million  of  tenement  population  we  are 
surrounded  by  misery  appalling  in  degree  and  fright- 
ful in  extent ;  but  as  our  responsibility  for  what  of 
this  sort  is  happening  right  at  our  door  is  blinding 
us  to  the  condition  of  the  homes  of  our  people, 
we    shall    at   first   transfer   our    social    studies   to 


358  The  People  and  their  Homes. 

a  more  remote  scene,  where  we  can  afford  to  be 
more  impartial  witnesses  of  events — to  France  and 
England — countries  ahead  of  all  others  in  manu- 
factoring,  and  which  may  serve  us  as  a  warning,  as 
in  proportion  as  we  adopt  their  system  the  same 
results  will  follow,  and  which,  perhaps,  has  already 
transpired  to  an  extent  we  are  unwilling  to  admit. 

A  study  of  the  industrial  classes  in  France  shows 
them  in  the  smaller  towns  pleasantly  located  in 
neat  houses,  with  savings  in  proportion  to  wages. 
In  large  cities,  where  the  houses  are  unpleasant 
and  the  family  is  anything  but  attractive,  higher 
wages  bring  only  dissipation.  Of  I2  to  15  children, 
3  to  4  survive.  In  Rouen,  of  3,000  children,  1,100 
die  before  the  expiration  of  the  first  year.  Most 
of  the  children  of  the  factory  people  are  farmed 
out,  and  83  of  100  are  left  to  die  from  starvation. 
Expensiveness  of  living  forces  the  mother  to  go  to 
the  factory  as  well  as  the  father,  where  they  both 
work  long  and  hard  ;  the  children,  neglected  and 
suffering,  die,  leaving  but  few,  and  they  are  crippled 
and  puny,  to  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  grumbling 
conscription  officer,  who  feels  himself  cheated  out 
of  his  recruits.  Here,  as  in  all  great  centres  of  in- 
dustry, dwellings  are  poor,  and,  consequently, 
drunkenness,  misery  and  the  ravages  of  licentious- 
ness eat  up  the  people. 

The  alleys,  houses,  rooms  and  furniture  are  filthy 


The  People  and  their  Honies.  359 

and  miserable  beyond  description,  left  most  of  the 
time  to  the  neglected  little  savages,  the  mother 
having  neither  time  nor  strength  left  to  clean,  wash 
or  sweep,  cook,  or  feed  her  little  ones.  She  can  do 
nothing  for  her  family,  neither  can  she  take  an 
interest  in  it  nor  be  a  companion  to  her  husband, 
who,  coming  home,  finds  nothing  but  filth  most 
repulsive,  insufficient  and  poor  food,  children  he 
hardly  knows,  and  a  woman  work  and  misery  have 
reduced  to  a  veritable  slave.  And  what  of  the 
children  during  all  the  day  ?  There  is  not  an  hour 
of  affection  or  joyous  childhood  for  them.  The 
dingy  home,  the  factory,  the  hospital  and  the 
grave  are  all  of  life,  and  the  last  is  the  best. 

The  child  of  six  is  kept  home  partly  from  weak- 
ness and  partly  to  take  care  of  two,  three  or  four 
little  crying  children.  The  school  may  keep  some 
of  the  children  five  to  six  hoiirs,  but,  of  course,  the 
parents  stay  away  twice  as  long.  The  women  can 
neither  sew,  mend,  knit  or  do  any  housework.  Not 
half  the  work-people,  when  their  children  are  sick — 
which  is  only  too  often  the  case — have  money  for 
bedding,  food,  medicine,  or  even  fire.  The  physicians 
say  in  half  of  the  cases  good  food  is  all  that  is 
needed,  but  they  dare  not  tell  it  to  the  family  who 
have  not  the  means. 

And  yet  all  this  misery  is  as  nothing.  This  want 
of  bread,  these  rags,  these  dingy,  dark  and  damp. 


360  The  People  a)id  their  Homes. 

chilly,  miserable  chambers  and  cellars  or  garret- 
rooms,  and  even  loathsome  diseases  and  burning 
fevers,  they  are  as  nothing  compared  to  the  soul- 
devouring  poison  that  grows  in  such  foulness. 
Hardened  by  misery  they  are  used  to  and  know 
not  how  to  escape,  fathers  spend  their  nights  in 
drinking  places,  while  their  children  die  with  hun- 
ger, mothers  become  indifferent  to  the  vices  of 
their  daughters  and  act  as  their  confidants  and 
counsellors  in  prostitution,  and  neither  father  nor 
mother  incline  to  save  their  children  from  the  per- 
dition which  threatens  them. 

The  mortality  of  Rouen — as  in  other  industrial 
centres — is  simply  murderous.  Devilliers  shows  that 
of  100  children  the  best  situated  citizens  lose  lO 
under  the  age  of  i  year,  the  work  people  lose  35  ! 
Of  the  children  farmed  out  by  the  factory  people, 
90  in  100  die  in  the  first  year  in  most  of  the  depart- 
ments of  France.  In  Eure-de-Loire  95  of  100  die. 
Of  27,219  children  in  this  department  8,037  died 
within  one  year.  There  were  1,389  illegitimate 
children,  of  whom  1,333  died  after  one  year  (1862). 
In  the  asylum  of  Loire-Inf6rieure  90.50  per  cent., 
and  in  Seine-Inferieure  87.36  per  cent,  of  the  chil- 
dren died  under  one  year. 

Hunger-driven  mothers  work  to  the  hour  of  de- 
livery, and,  hence,  this  mortality  among  their  feeble 
children,  who  have  not  the  strength  to  overcome 


Tlie  People  and  their  Hotnes.  361 

the  additional  miser>'  that  is  put  upon  them.  Poor 
mothers  !  all  day  at  work  and  nursing  all  night  with 
empty  breasts,  children  starving  all  day,  this  is  kill- 
ing game  for  mother  and  child. 

What  a  city  home  !  father  and  mother  gone  ;  an 
empty  room  ;  no  fire  in  the  stove  ;  a  baby  in  the 
crib  ;  a  girl  of  six  doing  the  work  of  a  mother.  Or 
little  dirty,  ragged  children  fighting  in  the  filthy 
lane  about  a  dirty  thing,  hard  to  say  what  it  is  and 
which  is  beneath  the  notice  of  dogs,  they  are  locked 
out,  and  vagabondage  is  forced  upon  them.  If  the 
children  live  to  eight  or  ten  years,  their  days  of  fac- 
tory slavery  begin.  The  working  people  in  the 
large  cities  of  France  are  worse  housed  than  prison- 
ers. No  jailer  would  keep  prisoners  with  so  little 
air,  light  or  food.  Their  dwellings  are  simply  mur- 
derous. No  room  for  anything,  for  attending  to 
anything  or  even  for  turning  around.  No  separa- 
tion of  sexes  or  decency  possible.  Men,  women  and 
children  sleep  all  in  the  same  bed.  The  room  is 
often  in  the  cellar  or  under  the  garret,  exposed  to 
wind  or  rain ;  everything  rots,  and  the  inhabitants 
are  constant  victims  of  rheumatism  and  skin  dis- 
eases. There  is  no  accommodation  for  anything; 
everything  has  to  be  bought  in  smallest  quantities 
and  in  the  most  expensive  way.  The  chimneys  are 
often  poor  and  the  smoke  blinding.  In  most  con- 
tagious diseases,  so  common  in  such  quarters,  isola- 
16 


362  The  People  and  their  Homes. 

tion  is  impossible.  Coming  from  his  labor  to  such 
a  dark,  damp,  uncomfortable  hole,  the  poor  man  is 
repelled  and  almost  driven  to  the  public  house, 
which  completes  his  ruin. 

Villermd  showed  under  these  conditions  in  the 
industrial  cities  of  France  the  average  life  of  the 
factory  people  to  be  just  nineteen  years,  while  that 
of  people  in  a  normal  condition  is  forty-three  !  The 
mortality  among  the  children  of  the  factory  he 
showed  to  be  a  veritable  extermination.  The 
misery  of  the  parents  forces  children  of  six  to 
seven  years  into  the  factory.  Of  course,  children 
so  young  are  made  to  work  by  compulsory  means. 
The  parents  soon  lose  all  influence  with  these 
young  factory  hands,  among  whom  a  fearful  de- 
moralization prevails,  and  who  at  the  age  of  twelve 
years  smoke,  drink,  visit  saloons  and  have  their 
girls.  So  Villerm6  found  it  thirty  years  ago  and 
so  Jules  Simon  finds  the  condition  of  the  factory 
people  in  the  populous  centres  of  Industry  to-day. 

The  physical  and  moral  ruin  of  the  people  in  the 
great  manufacturing  towns  of  France  is  beyond 
description. 

The  family,  with  ail  its  saving  influences,  has 
given  way  to  universal  vagabondage,  misery  and 
depravity,  which  can  hardly  end  otherwise  for 
France  than  in  the  desolation  of  its  large  cities 
lighted    up  by  maddened  petroUcuses.      Let    this 


TJie  People  and  their  Hojnes.  363 

lesson  written  over  the  lurid  sky  be  read  and  noticed 
all  over  the  world. 

Far  from  having  o\erdrawn  the  picture  of  the 
working  classes  in  the  large  cities  of  France,  we 
dared  not  half  tell  the  truth,  which  is  too  shocking 
for  a  straightforward  recital. 

Men,  women,  boys  and  girls  being  everywhere 
thrown  together  in  the  factory  and  upon  the  litter 
like  brutes,  decency  and  cleanliness  of  body  become 
impossible,  and  this  looseness  ends  in  the  complete 
destruction  of  all  principle  and  character  and  in  the 
ruin  of  society. 

1  he  working  girls  in  their  want  and  desolation 
abandon  themselves  and  become  mothers  before 
they  reach  maturity  of  age,  at  sixteen  to  fourteen 
and  earlier.  Men  fear  the  responsibility  of  a  family ; 
seeing  as  they  do  the  misery  of  their  fellows  in  the 
bonds  of  wedlock,  they  will  not  marry.  Poor 
women  are  forsaken  when  their  greatest  need  has 
come,  the  poor  children  are  farmed  out,  and  from 
eighty  to  ninety-five  of  a  hundred  die  in  less  than 
a  year.  The  men  shift  from  woman  to  woman 
and  the  women  from  man  to  man,  and  abomina- 
tions, best  left  unmentioned,  fill  the  land  and 
destroy  the  nation. 

The  same  corruption  we  find  everywhere  in  pro- 
portion as  the  people  are  crowded  into  tenement 
houses  of  a  low  order.     Little  Bavaria  has  an  an- 


364  The  People  a?id  their  Homes. 

nual  crop  of  35,083  illegitimate  births ;  Wurtemberg, 
12,216;  Prussia,  47,961,  and  Saxony,  12,057. 

A  digression  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  in 
reference  to  Sweden,  which  seems  to  contradict 
every  principle  of  social  philosophy ;  for,  while  its 
population  is  almost  entirely  agricultural,  well 
schooled  and  religiously  trained,  crime  abounds  to 
a  degree  found  nowhere  else.  Laing  found  one  in 
one  hundred  and  thirty-four  of  the  population  in 
the  country  and  one  in  forty-six  in  the  towns  con- 
victed of  crime,  while  in  Ireland  the  proportion  was 
in  the  same  year  one  in  seven  hundred  and  twenty- 
three.  Stockholm  had  annually  (1851-55)  1,788 
legitimate  births  and  1,477  illegitimate  ones!  The 
fact  is,  though  the  country  inclines  us  to  virtue  and 
the  manufacturing  town  with  its  attendants  to  vice, 
none  exerts  such  a  power  as  may  not  be  overcome 
by  other  influences.  The  nobility  of  Sweden, 
though  but  one  in  three  hundred  of  the  entire  pop- 
ulation, possesses  more  than  one-eighth  of  the  land, 
taxation  presses  hard  upon  the  poor  and  their  in- 
dustries, who  beside  earn  scanty  wages  and  can 
hardly  work  six  months  in  the  year  on  account  of 
the  severity  of  the  climate;  half  the  people,  there- 
fore, live  worse  than  Knglish  paupers.  Add  to  this 
that  nine-tenths  of  the  population  are  peasants, 
treated  by  all  classes  with  the  uttermost  contempt 
and  whose  degradation  is  completed  by  a  most  de- 


The  People  and  their  Hojnes.  365 

basing  penal  code,  and  we  certainly  cannot  wonder 
that  a  people  whose  sensibilities  are  blunted  by 
daily  misery,  and  despised  by  all  lost  its  self-regard, 
is  not  improved  in  its  morals  by  the  schoolmaster, 
the  Church  or  the  country.  Sweden,  thus,  of  all 
the  countries,  confirms  our  rule  that  the  school  is 
powerless  where  the  people  are  kept  in  a  pauper- 
ized condition  that  blunts  their  better  feelings  ;  and 
that  the  bringing  together  in  our  large  cities  the 
very  rich  and  the  very  poor — robbing  the  latter  of 
all  self-regard,  the  safest  defense  against  vice,  im- 
morality and  crime — destroys  them. 

As  to  the  condition  of  the  working  people  and 
their  dwellings  in  England,  let  Joseph  Kay's  pages 
answer.  Fathers,  mothers,  sons  and  daughters 
crowd  together  in  a  state  of  filthy  indecency,  and 
are  much  worse  off  than  the  horses  in  an  ordinary 
stable.  Sometimes  a  man  is  found  sleeping  with 
one  woman,  sometimes  with  two,  and  sometimes 
with  young  girls ;  sometimes  brothers  and  sisters 
of  the  ages  of  eighteen,  nineteen  and  twenty  are 

found  in  one  bed  together Men  and  women, 

three  and  four  found   sleeping  togecher,  are    not 
ashamed,  but  answer  remonstrances  by  laughter  or 

sneer 

In  1844,  20  per  cent,  of  the  working  classes  of 
Liverpool,  11^  per  cent,  of  those  of  Manchester 
and  8  per  cent,  of  those  of  Salford  lived  in  cellars. 


366  TJic  People  and  their  Homes. 

And  so  it  is  all  over  England,  and  the  farming 
hands  in  the  rural  cottages  don't  fare  any  better. 
The  population  is  denser  to-day  and  time  has 
brought  no  relief.  Look  beneath  all  the  display 
of  objects  of  literature,  science  and  art,  and  what 
is  there  but  a  pauperized  and  suffering  people.  To 
maintain  show  we  have  degraded  the  masses,  until 
we  have  created  an  evil  so  vast  that  we  now  de- 
spair of  ever  finding  the  remedy. 

A  committee  appointed  by  the  statistical  society 
to  investigate  the  condition  of  dwellings  and  the 
people,  say  :  "  Your  committee  has  given  a  picture 
in  detail  of  human  wretchedness,  filth  and  brutal 
degradation,  the  chief  features  of  which  are  a  dis- 
grace to  a  civilized  country  and  which  is  but  the 
type  of  the  miserable  condition  of  the  masses  of 
the  community,  whether  located  in  small,  ill-ven- 
tilated rooms  of  manufacturing  towns  or  in  many 
of  the  cottages  of  the  agricultural  peasantry.  In 
these  wretched  dwellings  all  ages  and  all  sexes, 
fathers  and  daughters,  mothers  and  sons,  grown- 
up brothers  and  sisters,  stranger  adult  males  and 
females  and  swarms  of  children — the  sick,  the  dy- 
ing and  the  dead,  are  herded  together  with  a  prox- 
imity and  mutual  pressure  which  brutes  would  re- 
sist ;  where  it  is  physically  impossible  to  preserve 
the  ordinary  decency  of  life  ;  where  all  sense  of 
propriety  and  self-respect  must  be  lost,  to  be  re- 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  367 

placed  only  by  a  recklessness  of  demeanor  which 
necessarily  results  from  vitiated  minds." 

Officials,  clergymen  and  surgeons  from  all  over 
England,  give  a  description  of  the  condition  of  the 
people  in  their  crowded  dwellings  too  shocking  for 
recital.  The  promiscuous  mingling  of  the  sexes  in 
the  bedrooms  has  been  increasing  and  producing 
year  after  year  worse  consequences,  until  it  has  be- 
come so  common  among  the  poor  as  to  destroy  all 
modesty  and  virtue  among  women,  and  threatens 
to  annihilate  the  foundations  on  which  are  based 
all  the  national  and  domestic  virtues,  and  to  make 
want  of  chastity  before  marriage  and  want  of  deli- 
cacy and  purity  after  marriage  common  character- 
istics of  the  mothers  and  wives  of  our  working 
people. 

We  shall  conclude  these  statements  of  Joseph 
Kay,  which  we  could  follow  up  by  others  of  equal 
authority,  with  the  significant  statistical  figures  of 
60,000  illegitimate  births  per  annum  in  good  Old 
England. 

We  are  at  a  loss  where  to  begin  and  where  to 
end,  or  how  to  press  into  a  few  brief  lines  all  the 
miseries  of  the  poor  arising  from  crowded  d\\ell- 
ings  as  sketched  by  John  E.  Morgan.  The  poor 
are  huddled  together  in  a  manner  that  health  and 
strength  for  their  daily  work  is  fairly  impossible. 
Their  dwellings  are  forcing-beds  of  disease,  where 


368  The  People  and  their  Homes. 

the  plague  originates.  Here  lies  the  very  canker 
at  the  root  of  our  social  system.  The  day's  work 
of  oar  laborers,  so  wearing  on  the  nervous  system 
as  well  as  on  the  muscles,  is  in  their  insalubrious 
dwellings  followed  by  loss  of  appetite  and  loss  of 
sleep. 

What  harvests  of  preventable  deaths  !  Fifteen 
or  sixteen  deaths  in  a  thousand  is  the  normal  death- 
rate.  In  sixty  of  the  worst  streets  of  Salford  the 
rate  of  mortality  for  a  number  of  years  ranged 
from  36  to  91  in  1,000,  the  average  of  the  whole 
being  51  !  And  Salford  is  no  exception.  Vaux- 
hall  district  in  Liverpool  showed  in  1864  a  death- 
rate  of  49  in  1,000,  and  St.  Paul's  Exchange  48 — 
and  that  is  not  the  worst. 

How  narrow  is  the  life-span  of  our  poor,  and  how 
full  of  physical  ailments  and  misery  is  that  little  ! 
Bad  air  and  too  little  of  it,  kills  the  people.  Thou- 
sands around  us  are  annually  dying,  starving  for 
want  of  a  breathable  air. 

In  Salford  25,000  people  suffer  intensely  from 
air-poisoning  ;  in  Manchester  80,000  ;  in  Liverpool 
and  Glasgow  are  an  equal  number  of  sufferers  from 
pestilential  quarters,  and  London  has  fully  a  half  a 
million  of  inhabitants,  who  suffer  enfeebled  health 
from  the  bad  state  of  their  crowded,  stifling  dwell- 
ings. Without  naming  the  towns,  upon  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  which  the  statement  is  based,  of  the 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  369 

12,000,000  of  the  town  population  of  England  and 
Scotland,  fully  2,000,000  suffer  from  want  of  proper 
dwellings. 

Dr.  Hunter  positively  states  that  the  dwellings 
are  more  crowded  by  10  per  cent,  to-day  than  they 
were  25  years  ago,  as  the  population  has  increased 
5^  per  cent.,  and  the  dwellings  have  at  the  same 
time  decreased  4I  per  cent.,  as  many  buildings  have 
been  appropriated  for  other  purposes.  Typhus, 
measles,  scarlet  fever,  smallpox  and  other  diseases 
come  and  go  ;  there  are  signs  of  a  widespread 
physical  deterioration ;  chronic  ailments  are  the 
rule  ;  dyspepsia,  bronchitis,  scrofula  and  consump- 
tion are  common,  and  the  thread  of  life  is  deplor- 
ably fine  spun,  and  many  seem  to  cower  around 
the  open  mouth  of  the  grave. 

From  these  crowded  poor  one  million  of  paupers 
gains  its  recruits  ;  prisons  and  reformatories  look 
to  them  for  their  largest  supply  ;  and  it  is  among 
them  that  diseases  originate  that  revenge  them- 
selves on  society  at  large.  So  far  Dr.  Morgan,  a 
public  officer  in  1869,  than  whom  none  is  better 
informed  upon  the  condition  of  the  laboring  masses 
and  their  dwellings. 

THE   TENEMENT  HOUSES   OF  NEW   YORK   CITY. 

We  beg  the  reader  to  notice  that  we  closely  fol- 
low the  Official  Reports  of  the  Board  of  Health, 
16* 


37©  The  People  and  their  Homes. 

published  for  the  last  ten  and  more  years,  by  which 
every  one  of  our  statements  may  be  verified. 

The  majority  of  tenement  houses  in  this  city  are 
old  structures  built  for  other  purposes,  partitioned 
off  within  so  as  to  give  each  family  a  living  room 
10  by  12  feet  and  a  bedroom  6  by  4  feet,  while  no 
regard  is  paid  to  ventilation  or  domestic  conveni- 
ences ;  twenty,  thirty,  forty  to  one  hundred  and 
fifty  such  apartments  are  constructed,  and  into  each 
a  family  of  from  three  to  five  persons  is  crowded. 
The  danger  from  crowding  in  these  tenement 
houses  is  a  hundred-fold  increased  by  their  being 
packed  together  in  blocks.  Rear  tenement  houses 
aggravate  the  evil  beyond  measure.  They  are  built 
upon  the  rear  of  the  yard,  close  to  the  rear  tene- 
ment of  the  opposite  lot,  leaving  a  small  cold  and 
damp  space  between  the  front  and  rear  houses,  not 
inappropriately  called  the  zvell  hole.  Not  only  are 
fresh  air  and  sunlight  thus  effectually  excluded 
from  the  living  and  sleeping  apartments  of  most 
of  the  inmates,  but  the  buildings  become  damp  and 
cold,  and  in  time  saturated  with  the  poisonous  and 
filthy  excretions  of  the  inmates. 

The  result  of  this  effective  overcrowding  in  badly 
constructed  dwellings  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
this  half  of  the  population  of  New  York  yields  75 
per  cent,  of  the  total  sickness  and  mortality.  Tene- 
ment  houses   of  a   capacity  for  ten   families   were 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  371 

found  by  the  Board  of  Health,  in  which,  beside 
other  diseases,  typhus  prevailed,  and  in  six  months 
twenty  persons  were  stricken  down  by  this  terrible 
malady.  In  other  buildings  a  mortality  of  55  in 
1,000,  or  I  in  18,  died  !  which  is  40  more  deaths  to 
every  1,000  population  than  there  is  absolute  neces- 
sity for. 

Tenements,  with  two  houses  on  the  same  lot, 
suffer  also  from  the  super-added  nuisance  of  privies 
located  in  the  middle  space.  The  air  in  these  areas 
is  always  impure  from  the  noxious  gases  arising 
from  the  privies,  and  even  without  these  necessary 
nuisances  the  air  is  too  confined  for  the  proper 
supply  of  human  beings.  Tenements  have  been 
examined  by  the  Board  in  which  the  apartments 
consisted  of  one  living  room  of  \\  by  8  feet  and  a 
dark  bedroom  of  7  by  8  feet,  with  no  means  for 
ventilation  and  full  of  filth,  furnishing  constant 
work  for  the  undertaker,  the  ambulance  and  the 
hospitals.  The  privy  vaults  and  everything  else, 
of  course,  was  in  a  most  loathsome  and  killing 
condition. 

A  description  of  the  kind  of  homes  work-people 
at  times  find  in  tenement  houses  may  interest.  The 
roof  leaky  as  a  sieve,  affecting  the  comfort  of  the 
inmates  down  to  the  second  floor;  the  walls,  ceil- 
ings and  woodwork  of  the  whole  house  shaky  with 
age  and  bad  Msage  and  rotten  with  filth  ;  the  fire- 


3/2  The  People  and  their  Homes. 

places  destroyed  and  dangerous  ;  the  partition  walls 
thin,  ill-fitting  planks,  covered  with  foul  and  ragged 
paper.  The  alleyway  dark,  extremely  filthy  and 
dangerous  in  every  respect.  The  basement  walls 
crumbling ;  the  ceiling  below  the  level  of  the 
street ;  no  light,  except  through  the  door,  and  occu- 
pied by  four  beds ;  the  steps  decayed  and  danger- 
ous. While  the  wood  and  other  materials  of  such 
structures  undergo  the  process  of  dry  rot,  the 
wretched  tenants  waste  and  die  from  a  disease  ex- 
pressively termed  the  "  tenement  house  rot." 

The  debasing  effects  of  such  houses  have  never 
been  overdrawn.  Mr.  N.  P.  Willis  gave  the  fol- 
lowing vivid  description  of  the  tenement  class  of 
people  immediately  after  the  riot  of  1863:  "The 
high  brick  blocks  and  closely  packed  houses  in  this 
neighborhood  seemed  to  be  literally  hives  of  sick- 
ness and  vice.  Curiosity  to  look  on  at  the  fire 
raging  so  near  them  brought  every  inhabitant  to 
the  porch  or  window,  or  assembled  them  in  ragged 
and  dirty  groups  on  the  sidewalks  in  front.  Prob- 
ably not  a  creature  who  could  move  was  left  in- 
doors at  that  hour.  And  it  is  wonderful  to  see 
and  difficult  to  believe  that  so  much  misery  and 
disease  and  wretchedness  could  be  huddled  to- 
gether and  hidden  by  high  walls  unvisited  and  un- 
thought  of  so  near  our  own  abodes.  The  lewd, 
but  pale  and  sickly  young  women,  scarce  decent  in 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  373 

their  ragged  attire,  were  impudent  and  scattered 
everywhere  in  the  crowd.  But  what  numbers  of 
these  poor  classes  are  deformed ;  what  numbers 
are  made  hideous  by  self-neglect  and  infirmity, 
and  what  numbers  are  paralytics,  drunkards,  imbe- 
cile or  idiotic,  forlorn  in  their  poverty-stricken 
abandonment  for  the  world  !  Alas  !  human  faces 
look  so  hideous  with  hope  and  vanity  all  gone ! 
And  female  form  and  features  are  made  so  fright- 
ful by  sin,  squalor  and  debasement." 

The  degree  of  overcrowding  in  the  tenements  of 
New  York  City  exceeds  that  of  any  of  the  large 
cities  of  the  civilized  world. 

The  density  of  population  was  to  each  acre  in 
1870: 

NEW  YORK,  LONDON. 

nth  Ward  .     .     .     .     .  328  Strand 307 

13th       " 311  St,  Luke's 259 

14th       " 275  East  London    ....  266 

17th       " 289  Holborn 229 

The  highest  allowable  population  is  80  to  100 
persons  to  the  acre.  The  effect  of  this  excessive 
crowding  in  badly  constructed  dwellings  upon  the 
death  rate  is  that  double  as  many  of  these  tene- 
ment inmates  die  as  of  the  people  living  in  the 
country.  Sickness  and  death  are,  however,  but  a 
fraction  of  the  sum  total  of  damage  which  over- 
crowding and  defective  house  accommodations  do 


374  The  People  and  tJieir  Homes. 

to  the  poor.  The  gross  immorality,  the  huddling 
up  of  all  sexes  and  ages,  leads  them  on  to  a  total 
self-abandonment  and  every  species  of  vice  and 
crime. 

Gotham  Court  may  be  taken  as  a  representative 
of  tenement  houses,  their  character,  accommoda- 
tions and  influence  on  the  population.  Two  bar- 
rack-buildings furnish  tenements  to  146  families  or 
584  individuals.  At  times  it  has  been  packed  with 
nearly  double  that  number.  The  roof  is  a  general 
playground  for  children  and  a  place  of  deposit  for 
ashes,  garbage  and  to  a  large  extent  used  as  a  privy 
by  the  tenants.  The  plaster  and  woodwork  of  the 
hallways  is  out  of  repair  and  extremely  filthy ;  the 
stairs  are  dangerous ;  the  cellars  are  dark,  horribly 
foul  and  filled  with  mud,  rubbish  and  human  excre- 
ments. They  are  not  used  for  storage  of  wood 
or  coal,  as  neither  property  nor  life  are  safe  in  these 
cellars  on  account  of  rowdyism  rampant  around 
this  court.  The  privies  arc  horrible  breeding  tanks 
of  disease ;  the  horrible  odors  rising  from  this  im- 
mense receptacle  of  filth  spread  between  the  two 
piles  of  buildings — each  five  stories  high — which 
are  separated  only  by  a  distance  of  nine  feet  wide. 
The  poison  thus  concentrated  is  very  directly  ap- 
plied to  each  and  every  apartment  in  the  buildings. 
Added  to  the  filth  of  the  privies  is  the  filth  of  the 
yard,   into    which    much    rubbish    and    garbage    is 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  375 

thrown.  For  a  long  time  this  court  has  been  the 
nightly  resort  of  a  crowd  of  loafers,  bummers  and 
roughs,  who  kept  the  tenants  in  a  complete  state 
of  terrorism.  On  Sunday  especially  this  is  the  play- 
ground of  these  rascals — boys  and  half-grown  men 
— who  fight  among  themselves  and  pick  quarrels 
with  the  tenants.  Women  of  the  street  are  dragged 
in,  under  the  back-stairs  and  into  the  cellars  by 
these  miserable  youngsters,  and  vice,  drunkenness 
and  terror  reign  rampant.  The  police  will  not  fol- 
low them  into  these  dark  cellars  and  recesses.  The 
agent  and  housekeeper  dare  not  interfere ;  and  the 
police,  I  fear,  are  content  to  leave  the  court  pretty 
much  to  itself.  Ventilation  is  impossible,  and  even 
if  it  was  not,  the  air  is  already  poisoned  before  it 
would  enter  the  rooms.  This  was  the  condition 
of  Gotham  in  1870.  In  1865  the  Health  Officer 
found  the  mortality  in  these  buildings  30  per  cent. 
of  the  children  born,  7  per  cent,  of  the  entire  popu- 
lation, which  is  three  and  four  times  as  great  a 
mortality  than  there  is  an  absolute  necessity  for. 
Of  504  inmates  146  were  more  or  less  sick,  some 
with  smallpox,  some  with  typhus,  some  with  scarla- 
tina, dysentery,  chronic  diarrhoea,  etc. 

All  zymotic,  epidemic  and  contagious  diseases 
make  especial  havoc  in  our  tenement  houses,  as  they 
are  usually  overcrowded,  badly  ventilated,  damp 
and  filthy ;  the  relapsing  fever,  however,  is  peculiarly 


37^  The  People  and  their  Homes. 

a  disease  resulting  from  overcrowding  and  destitu- 
tion, while  typhus  is  a  disease  which  finds  its  cause 
in  overcrowding  alone.  Miserable  living  and  sleep- 
ing in  damp,  filthy  cellars  and  unventilated  apart- 
ments produce  this  epidemy,  by  which  thousands 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  tenement  houses  have 
been  attacked  in  1870.  This  epidemy  has  been  for 
the  last  few  years  raging  all  over  the  civilized  (?) 
world  among  the  destitute  laborers,  who  are  living 
in  unwholesome  and  crow^ded  apartments. 

The  cholera  of  1866  left  the  inhabitants  of  the 
clean  and  well-to-do  sections  of  the  city  of  New 
York  unvisited,  even  while  this  terrible  pest  has 
slain  hundreds  of  victims  in  the  overcrowded,  badly 
ventilated,  damp  and  filthy  tenement  houses.  In 
1867  the  mortality  of  children  of  one  year  of  age 
amounted  from  week  to  week  one-fourth  to  one- 
half  of  the  entire  death  rate.  In  some  of  the 
crowded  tenement  neighborhoods  80  per  cent,  of 
the  mortality  occurred  among  the  infant  popula- 
tion. The  unhealthfulness  of  the  dwellings  is  most 
telling  upon  the  delicate  constitution  of  infants; 
and,  hence,  the  slaughter  among  them.  In  many 
cases  it  was  observed,  though  death  was  imminent, 
removal  to  the  country  and  its  pure  atmosphere 
terminated  the  disease  as  if  by  magic.  The  filth 
and  foul  air  of  tenement  houses  furnish  the  ferment 
foi    contagious  and   miasmatic  diseases,  and  fresh 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  377 

air,  pure  water  and  plenty  of  sunlight  are  the  best 
preventatives  of  zymotic  as  well  as  of  other  diseases. 

In  the  report  of  1874,  we  read  that  large  num- 
bers of  cellars  in  the  lower  wards  of  the  city  were 
occupied  as  dwellings  and  lodging-places,  which 
were  totally  unfit  for  such  occupancy ;  many  of 
them  nests  of  crime,  and  all  in  a  condition  to 
become  on  the  slightest  appearance  of  pestilence 
the  centres  of  disease.  In  most  cellars  the  walls 
and  ceilings  were  found  damp ;  the  floors  resting 
on  damp  earth  were  rotting  away  or  were  resting 
upon  stagnant  water,  which  would  be  forced  up  be- 
low the  boards  at  the  slightest  pressure  of  the  foot 
upon  the  floor.  Many  of  the  lodging-cellars  were 
found  to  be  long  rooms  divided  into  small  apart- 
ments by  pieces  of  curtain,  while  in  others  the  beds 
were  arranged  alongside  of  each  other  without  such 
partition  and  occupied  indiscriminately  by  lodgers 
of  both  sexes.  In  the  second  sanitary  inspection 
district  315  persons  were  found  living  in  damp,  un- 
ventilated  cellars.  They  suffered  from  alcoholism, 
and  rheumatism  in  all  its  stages. 

In  the  Fourth  Ward  176  cellars  were  found  in  a 
deplorably  filthy  state,  and  radical  measures  were 
recommended  for  closing  them  and  redeeming  the 
wretched  occupants  of  those  cellars  from  early 
graves,  lives  of  drunkenness  and  prostitution.  In 
numerous  instances  damp,  dark,  filthy  cellars  were 


378  The  People  and  their  Homes. 

rented  from  $25  to  $75  per  month.  "  The  system 
of  tenement  dwellings  is  so  radically  wrong  that  to 
suggest  improvements  would  end  in  a  suggestion 
that  the  present  houses  be  all  torn  down.  Clean- 
liness in  them  is  impossible  without  light  and  air, 
and  this  cannot  be  had  with  front  and  rear  build- 
ings. Volumes  of  air  vitiated  by  the  disagreeable 
smells  of  cookery  of  the  lower  stories  are  always 
sent  up  through  the  halls  and  narrow  courtyards, 
also  the  exhalations  of  decaying  vegetable  matter 
and  the  like.  The  walls  and  ceilings  of  the  halls 
become  soon  covered  with  a  coating  of  animal  mat- 
ter deposited  upon  them,  and  the  floors  become 
soaked  with  moisture,  filth  and  dirt,  which  is  never 
removed." 

We  might  have  presented  more  sensational  pic- 
tures— we  have  preferred  to  describe  the  homes  of 
the  working  people  in  the  very  words  of  our  noble 
sanitary  inspectors,  and  the  misery  of  their  occu- 
pants can  be  easily  inferred  upon  the  principle  of 
Mr.  Godwin  :  "  As  the  homes,  so  the  people." 

Our  sanitary  inspectors  are  doing  their  best  to 
improve  the  condition  of  the  tenement  houses. 
But  as  the  population  increases  and  the  business 
houses  encroach  and  narrow  the  field  of  the  tene- 
ment houses,  and  the  proportion  of  the  inhabitants 
to  the  area  is  already  three  times  as  large  as 
health  permits  it,  all  their  measures  cannot  bring 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  379 

permanent  relief.  Besides,  their  powers  are  too 
restricted  to  do  all  the  good  they  would  like  to  do. 

Is  it  in  Boston,  the  Athens  of  American  intelli- 
gence, any  better  ?  The  State  Board  of  Health  of 
Massachusetts  tells  us  that  the  homes  of  the  labor- 
ing classes  in  Boston  are  overcrowded  and  unwhole- 
some, abodes  of  misery,  affecting  injuriously  the 
health,  the  morals  and  the  political  purity  of  the 
community  ;  they  are  disgracefully  unfit  for  human 
habitations,  and  nothing  can  be  added  to  a  true 
notion  of  their  badness,  as  their  character  for  squal- 
idness  and  unwholesomeness  is  known  to  all. 

The  State  Board  is  tired  of  telling  over  the  story 
of  the  miserable  abodes  of  the  people,  and  we  shall 
follow  the  description  of  the  Rev.  Edward  E.  Hale 
in  his  "  How  the  People  Live  in  Boston,  and  How 
They  Die  There." 

The  mortality  of  the  infants  in  Bethlehem,  which 
has  made  every  Christian  mother  curse  the  name 
of  Herod,  is  more  than  equalled  in  the  terrible  suf- 
ferings of  the  children  in  Boston.  Seventy-five  deaths 
among  the  children  of  the  poor  happening  just  from 
cholera  infantum  alone  in  twenty-four  hours  !  And 
almost  all  under  one  year  of  age,  and  coming  out 
of  all  proportion  from  the  tenements  of  the  poor. 
Not  a  child  on  the  dead-list  from  Beacon,  Chestnut 
or  Pinkney  Streets,  nor  deaths  in  Union  Park, 
Worcester  or  Springfield   Streets,  or  from  Chester 


380  The  People  and  their  Homes. 

Square  ;  in  skort,  not  one  death  from  the  v^ery  nice 
streets.  The  largest  part  come  from  two  neighbor- 
hoods— the  quarters  of  the  dingy  homes  of  the 
poor.  But  let  us  glance  inside  these  hells,  called  by 
a  misnomer  homes.    Well,  here  we  are  in  the  room 

of  Mrs.  K ,  who  lost  a  boy — it  was  her  only 

child.  The  air  was  damp,  chilly  and  dark,  because 
the  sun  never  kissed  it.  The  floor  of  the  entry  was 
wet  from  the  overrunning  of  the  water-faucet,  which 
supplied  the  house,  and  all  the  region  was  damp,  as 
the  cellar  is  apt  to  be,  which  is  much  below  the 
tide-level.  Just  seven  people  lived  in  four  rooms, 
which  put  together  would  have  made  one  of  twenty 
feet  square. 

One  of  the  deaths  happened  in  the  house  oppo- 
site, in  which  thirty-one  persons  lived  (?)  in  fourteen 
so-called  rooms.  What  had  been  the  yard  of  this 
house  had  been  taken  up  by  another  tenement 
building. 

Another  one  of  the  deaths  occurred  in  a  four- 
story  tenement,  in  which  forty  families  are  packed, 
and  which  looks  very  much  like  a  menagerie  cage. 

13  E street   is  another  such  feeder  of  the 

cemetery.  Two  tenement  houses  adjoining  each 
other,  with  thirteen  families  in  the  one  and  ten  in 
the  other.  The  water  pipes  are  put  up  in  the  most 
shameful  manner.  ,Thcy  must  of  necessity  freeze 
up  at  the  very  first  frost.     There  are  but  two  fau- 


TJie  People  and  their  Homes.  381 

cets  for  twenty-three  families  to  draw  from,  and  no 
way  to  get  to  them  without  wading  through  dirty 
water.  Two  of  the  most  filthy  privies,  entirely  open 
for  these  twenty-three  families,  are  so  much  out 
of  repair  as  to  be  dangerous  to  enter.  The  apart- 
ments are  miserable  places,  out  of  repair,  the  plas- 
tering of  the  walls  and  ceilings  give  little  chance 
to  whitewash,  as  it  is  broken  off  to  a  large  extent. 

One  of  the  poor  innocents  was  sent  to  its  rest 
from  one  of  the  tenements  in  Phoenix  Place.  There 
is  a  melancholy  uniformity  in  this  class  of  build- 
ings. They  are  lightly  built  of  wood,  all  on  the 
same  plan.  Think  of  it,  sixty  adults  and  sixty-five 
children  packed  away  in  sixty  rooms,  each  of  which 
was  about  twelve  feet  square.  The  summer  atmo- 
sphere of  these  places  is  odious,  but  the  winter  at- 
mosphere is  worse.  The  lots  are  so  small  that  all 
privy  arrangements  and  deposits  of  offal  are  hor- 
ribly near  the  open  windows.  It  was  wretched  to 
hear  the  woman  talk,  as  if  the  child  died  of  course, 
and  she  never  ought  to  have  expected  that  it  would 
live.  The  poor  feel  they  are  doomed  and  become 
reckless. 

It  would  be  a  sad  and  endless  repetition  to  say 
more  in  detail  about  this  matter,  as  the  dwellings 
assigned  for  homes  to  the  laboring  poor  in  Boston 
all  are  pretty  much  of  the  same  description. 

In  1865,  a  thousand  children  died  in  less  than  a 


382  The  People  and  their  Homes. 

hundred  days  from  an  epidemy  that  raged  among 
the  dear  Httle  ones.  The  Bostonians,  who  hve  in 
comfortable  circumstances  and  neat  homes,  are  sur- 
prised to  hear  it.  It  did  not  touch  them — it  raged 
among  the  poor. 

But  the  worst  of  all  is  that  it  is  not  only  New 
York  City,  Boston,  Baltimore,  Cincinnati,  St.  Louis, 
Louisville,  New  Orleans,  in  short,  the  very  large 
cities;  it  is  fully  as  bad  in  the  smaller  manufactur- 
ing towns  everywhere.  Take,  for  instance,  the  tene- 
ment house  called  "  Buffum's  Block,"  in  Linn,  Mass. 
It  is  eighty  feet  long,  thirty  feet  wide,  containing 
a  basement,  two  stories  and  an  attic.  In  the  base- 
ment, below  the  level  of  the  street,  three  families 
live,  and  the  house  contains  not  less  than  forty-six 
persons.  The  privies  are  foul  and  beyond  approach 
by  a  decent  person.  Additional  complaint  was 
caused  by  the  privies  of  the  neighboring  tenements 
which,  being  on  higher  ground  and  faulty  in  con- 
struction, were  overflowing  into  this  yard.  Here 
is  a  sample,  and  we  take  the  first — there  is  not 
much  choice — from  Salem,  in  the  same  State,  at 
No.  18  Congress  Street.  At  the  time  of  the  inspec- 
tion by  the  health  officer,  this  house  stood  in  the 
midst  of  a  pond  of  stagnant  water.  In  the  same 
watery  lot  was  an  overflowing  privy-vault,  and  a 
piggery  added  its  contribution  to  the  general  filth. 
Sixteen  persons  occupied  the  house,  which  was  in 


The  People  and  iJtcir  Homes.  383 

a  condition  to  poison  the  atmosphere  of  the  whole 
neighborhood.  All  the  tenements  of  the  laboring 
classes  in  this  district,  says  the  State  Report,  should 
be  condemned  as  nuisances. 

Here,  as  an  illustration — and  we  take  again  the 

first   at   hand — from    Springfield,  T Block. 

The  house,  when  inspected,  was  greatly  out  of  re- 
pair— its  windows  broken,  its  stairs  dangerous,  its 
roof  leaking.  The  vaults  of  the  privy  were  brick 
receptacles,  entirely  above  ground,  and  as  one  of 
them  was  broken,  the  abundant  contents  had  set- 
tled away,  a  filthy  mass  of  excrement  overflowing. 
Most  of  the  tenants  declined  to  use  these  privies, 
and  resorted  to  expedients  which  can  only  be 
hinted  at. 

This  is  not  impracticable  fault-finding.  Quick 
transit  opens  a  highway  that  leads  out  of  these  and 
a  thousand  other  abominations  equally  destructive 
to  the  people,  who  are  to-day  unreasonably  herded 
in  miserable  tenement  houses. 

Quick  transit  gives  the  working  people  the  means 
to  live  out  in  the  country  in  their  own  cottages, 
where  God  Almighty's  untampered  sweet  influences 
will  keep  them  sound  in  body  and  soul,  sound  in 
principle  and  in  action,  and  in  all  the  relations  of 
the  individual  to  himself,  his  family  and  the  state. 

A  home  in  the  country  with  a  garden  patch  at- 
tached to  it,  owned  by  every  working-man,  is  the 


384  TJie  People  and  their  Homes. 

only  possible  solution  of  a  thousand  problems  which 
press  for  an  answer. 

Once  every  mechanic  looked  forward  to  the  time 
when  he  would  be  master  and  have  his  own  shop. 
To-day,  once  a  factory  employee,  means  always 
one ;  he  is  a  hopeless  vagrant ;  he  cannot  invest 
and  does  not  economize,  and  ever  remains  without 
a  home,  hope  or  property.  In  unemployed  spells, 
a  general  crisis,  or  a  change  or  cessation  of  his 
trade  through  the  invention  of  new  machinery,  in 
sickness  or  old  age,  he  becomes  homeless,  breadless 
and  penniless. 

Must  not  such  uncertainty  be  unbearable  to  in- 
telligent laborers,  spread  discontent  among  them 
and  dispose  them  to  anything  that  threatens  the 
overthrow  of  the  present  order  of  society?  This 
terrible  uncertainty  must  give  way  to  something 
more  reasonable,  just  and  better.  Our  workmen  are 
perishing  body  and  soul  in  our  city  slaughter-pens, 
called  tenement  houses. 

The  population  living  in  private  houses  in  New 
York  Cit}^  number  a  half  a  million,  and  their  mortal- 
ity was  in  1872,  11,097,  or  about  22  in  1,000;  the 
other  half  a  million  of  tenement  population  had  in 
the  same  year  21,550  deaths !  or  more  than  10,000 
above  their  proper  share.  And  as  there  are  fourteen 
cases  of  sickness  to  every  one  case  of  death,  the  work- 
men of  this  city  had  140,000  more  cases  of  sickness 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  385 

in  their  families  than  they  would  have  had  in  more 
wholesome  dwellings.  What  loss  of  human  life, 
what  sufferings,  what  expense  and  what  loss  of 
labor  are  implied  in  these  preventable  deaths  and 
diseases,  the  latter  of  which,  again,  by  enfeebling 
the  bodies  and  minds  of  the  people  multiply 
pauperism,  drunkenness,  premature  orphanage  and 
widowhood,  prostitution,  crime,  retributive  violence 
and  consequent  prison  life  and  suffering. 

Most  unfortunate  for  the  people  they  are  the 
children  of  God,  for  were  they  horses  they  would 
not  be  left  to  perish  for  want  of  a  little  more  stable 
room. 

This  social  murder  could  be  stopped  by  the 
double  measure  of  quick  transit  and  strict  sanitary 
regulations  in  reference  to  tenement  buildings. 
"  Houses  that  produce  death  cease  to  be  property. 
If  a  man  sells  unwholesome  meat,  the  law  inter- 
feres ;  if  he  sells  the  use  of  a  room  with  fever  in  it, 
the  public  do  not  complain.  Officers  of  health 
point  out  such  places,  but  the  public  still  refuse  to 
destroy  them,  and  great  numbers  are  slain  annually 
by  this  indirect  and  legal  method,  while  the  strict- 
est measures  are  taken  to  prevent  a  few  annually 
being  killed  by  arsenic.  The  time  must  come,  and 
the  sooner  the  better,  when  it  shall  be  enacted,  that 
no  land  shall  contain  more  people  per  acre  than 
can  live  healthily  thereon.  The  same  thing  must 
17 


386  The  People  and  their  Homes. 

be  said  regarding  houses,  though  this  is  more  dif- 
ficult to  attain." 

At  Muhlhausen,  in  Elsace,  a  workmen-town  was 
built,  giving  laborers  facilities  for  acquiring  prop- 
erty, and  what  a  change  it  worked  I  what  a  revolu- 
tion 1  a  blessed  revolution  that  destroyed  vice  and 
misery,  and  led  from  the  improvement  of  material 
conditions  to  a  moral  regeneration. 

At  Lille,  in  France,  houses  have  been  built  for 
the  workmen  with  gardens  attached  to  them,  and 
are  sold  to  the  laborers  on  easy  terms.  At  Rouen 
the  same  system  is  attended  with  the  same  blessed 
results. 

To  illustrate  this  system,  we  may  add  a  word 
more  about  Muhlhausen,  the  first  great  success 
of  a  Workmen-town.  One  hundred  houses  were 
built  in  1853,  an  additional  428  were  built  in 
1859,  and  560  in  1863.  Of  these,  700  belonged 
to  the  workmen  in  1866.  They  paid  $4.60  per 
month,  and  in  14  years  each  house  held  at  $600 
was  paid  up,  interest  and  capital,  having  paid  but 
little  more  than  a  high  rent.  Each  home  has  a 
garden  of  30  by  ^6  feet  attached  to  it.  The  gov- 
ernment has  voted  $2,000,000,  a  loan  to  building 
societies  under  the  following  conditions:  i.  The 
properties  must  be  sold  to  the  workmen  at  cost 
price.  2.  No  purchaser  to  be  allowed  to  sell  his 
property  before  ten  years,  so  as  to  prevent  specu- 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  387 

lation.  3.  The  building  company  not  to  charge 
the  workmen  more  than  4  per  cent,  for  capital  until 
it  is  paid  up.  4.  A  public  building,  uniting  a  read- 
ing-room, restaurant,  bathing  and  washhouse  and  a 
bazar,  where  all  articles  of  common  consumption 
are  sold  to  the  workmen  at  wholesale  prices,  must 
be  built  in  the  centre  of  the  town. 

The  Industrial  Building  Society  at  Muhlhausen 
has  complied  with  these  conditions,  and  received 
from  the  government  in  addition  to  their  original 
capital  of  $25,000  a  loan  of  $80,000.  In  this  com- 
paratively small  manufacturing  place  700  toiling 
families  were  changed  from  hand-to-mouth  living 
renters  into  provident  and  independent  citizens 
and  property  holders,  each  living  in  his  own  com- 
fortable home  undisturbed  by  the  often  unwelcome 
company  of  drunkards  and  other  incongruous  and 
even  infamous  characters  thrust  upon  decent  men 
in  tenement  houses,  living  in  cheerful  quarters,  and 
as  if  it  were  under  his  own  fig-tree.  No  more 
driven  from  cheerless  and  filthy  rooms  to  the  de- 
bauchery of  the  public  house.  What  moments  he 
can  save  he  bestows  upon  his  garden,  and  the  boys 
and  the  mother  are  happy  to  second  him  with  the 
hoe  as  he  goes  ahead  of  them  with  the  spade,  now 
and  then  stopping  and  blending  his  solid  reflections 
and  well-meant  counsel  to  his  family  with  his  labor 
of  love.     They  make  arbors  for  shade  and  plan  im- 


388  The  People  arid  tlicir  Homes. 

provements,  beautifying  the  homestead.  When  old, 
he  need  not  blush  to  live  from  the  earnings  of  his 
sons,  for  he  has  done  his  duty  to  them  and  all  the 
family.  And  father  and  mother,  after  a  life  of  toil, 
but  which  was  not  without  its  blessings,  die  on  the 
homestead  with  the  children,  leaving  them  not  only 
property,  but  a  good  name  and  a  model  life.  Not 
only  property  is  thus  made,  but  character  is  built 
up  and  kept  like  a  jewel. 

What  a  difference  between  such  w^orkmen  and 
those  who  are  driving  about  like  vagabonds  and 
semi-savages.  Jean  Dolfus,  who  started  this  noble 
work  at  Muhlhausen,  deserves  well  of  the  human 
race  for  this  illustrious  example  given  to  manufac- 
turers and  workmen. 

At  Guebwiller,  also  in  Elsace,  a  hundred  cottages 
with  gardens  attached  to  them,  were  built  in  1866. 

Bcaucourt  had  in  1864,  97  cottages.  Colmar  built 
in  1864,  50  houses.  At  Sedan,  the  workmen  own 
their  houses  and  gardens,  and  are  as  respected  for 
their  character  as  they  are  useful  by  their  labor. 

What  touching  stories  could  be  told  about  many 
a  workingman  who,  under  the  old  system,  became 
dissolute  and  was  daily  ncaring  a  drunkard's  grave, 
but  who  has  been  redeemed  at  the  first  opportunity 
of  acquiring  a  piece  of  property,  a  home  for  his 
family  and  old  age. 

At  the  Ashton  colony  of  workmen,  in  I'^ngland, 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  389 

none  have  yet  applied  for  charity ;  in  35  years 
hardly  a  breach  of  law  has  occurred,  and  illegiti- 
mate births  are  becoming  scarce.  The  people  look 
healthy,  and  even  those  who  work  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  80°  Fahrenheit  are  strong  and  vigorous, 
having  but  one-half  day  of  sickness  in  a  whole 
year.  The  intercourse  between  employers  and 
employed  is  marked  by  regard  and  confidence. 

Get  railroad  advantages,  give  us  opportunities 
for  cheap  country  homes,  and  societies  will  spring 
up  which  will  enable  the  poorest  laborer  to  live  in 
his  own  house. 

England  has  over  2,000  such  building  societies 
with  800,000  members  and  $80,000,000  loaned  on 
buildings.  London  alone  has  over  700  societies 
with  over  $20,000,000  advanced  on  property  to  its 
members.  Scotland  has  over  88  building  societies 
with  over  $65,000,000  advanced  to  its  members. 
These  building  societies  afford  manufacturers  the 
best  opportunity  for  providing  their  workmen  with 
homes,  and  have  been  used  for  that  purpose  by 
the  noble  Arkroyd,  Crossley,  and  others.  Bel- 
gium, Germany  and  other  countries  have  been 
benefited  by  the  opportunities  building  societies 
offer  to  the  poor  for  owning  homes,  and  there  is 
no  reas:  n  why  building  societies  should  not  prove 
a  success  in  New  York  and  other  cities  in  the  Union 
as  well  as  in  Philadelphia. 


390  The  People  and  their  Homes. 

We  consider  that  this  step  must  be  taken  of  all 
others  first,  if  the  great  and  momentous  questions 
of  civilization,  which  crowd  around  labor,  are  to 
find  a  peaceable  solution. 

The  massing  of  the  people  in  a  few  centres  is 
productive  of  a  thousand  mischievous  consequences, 
which  threaten  capital  as  well  as  labor  and  every 
other  element  of  civilizaticm — yea,  the  body  and 
soul  of  man  with  utter  destruction.  Avoiding  gen- 
eral argument  and  steering  toward  convincing  facts, 
we  refrain  from  entering  upon  the  moral,  political, 
social  and  economical  tendencies  of  the  present 
movement  of  population  toward  the  great  cities, 
and  will  strengthen  our  position  of  the  importance 
of  the  workingmen  acquiring  homes,  with  an  au- 
thority like  that  of  Le  Play,  a  most  thoughtful  and 
competent  writer,  who  has  devoted  a  lifetime  to 
the  study  of  the  condition  of  the  industrial  classes, 
and  who  sees  the  only  means  of  preserving  society 
and  the  prevention  of  the  dissolution  and  the  re- 
lapse of  society  into  barbarism  through  a  variety 
of  corrupting  influences,  undermining  the  family 
first  and  society  next,  in  restoring  the  ancient  cus- 
tom— the  family  owning  their  hcorth.  Only  by  this 
means  good  habits  and  wholesome  customs  are 
preserved  and  revered,  parental  authority  honored, 
woman's  influence  a  blessing,  economy  fostered  to 
acquire   thf^   home,  character  developed,  reliability 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  391 

and  trustworthiness  gained  and  roving  and  indiffer- 
ence overcome. 

In  regard  to  the  workmen  reaching  their  homes 
in  the  country  and  their  places  of  work  in  the  city, 
we  agree  with  Dr.  S.  Smith's  sanitary  report  of 
1 87 1,  from  which  the  following  page  is  taken : 

"  The  workmen  must  depend  upon  the  railroad, 
which  has  not  and  probably  will  not  give  him  cheap 
fares  without  compulsory  legislation,  and  such  legis- 
lation we  believe  should  be  at  once  obtained.  As 
a  slight  return  for  the  privilege  which  railroad  com- 
panies enjoy  within  this  city,  especially  in  the  mo- 
nopoly of  large  areas  of  valuable  land,  they  should 
be  compelled  to  provide  cheap  transit  for  the  poor 
and  laboring  classes.  Such  legislation  in  England 
long  since  compelled  all  new  railroads  entering 
London  to  provide  penny  trains  at  suitable  hours. 
These  cheap  trains  proved  a  marked  success.  The 
Legislature  of  Massachusetts  recently  passed  a  law 
compelling  the  railroads  to  provide  cheap  trains 
morning  and  evening,  and  charging  one  cent  a  mile 
for  yearly  tickets,  and  this  law  has  been  there  in 
force  since  1862.  The  same  kind  of  legislation 
should  be  obtained  in  this  State  in  regard  to  all 
railroads  entering  New  York  Gity," 

Homes  for  workmen  out  of  the  city  is  nothing 
but  what  is  just  and  proper;  it  is  in  the  interest  of 
all  parties,  the  capitalist  as  well  as  the  laborer,  and 


392  TJie  People  and  their  Homes. 

the  family  as  well  as  the  state.  It  is  approved  by 
philosophers  and  statesmen,  and  has  been  put  into 
practice  with  success  by  manufacturers  on  a  suf- 
ficiently large  scale  to  judge  its  success. 

Sir  Robert  Peel,  whom  nobody  will  accuse  of  im- 
practicable radicalism,  says:  "Our  large  cities  offer 
the  workman  only  opportunities  for  continuous  la- 
bor and  gross  and  degrading  pleasures.  Give  them 
small  properties  in  the  vicinity  of  the  manufactur- 
ing districts,  this  will  wean  them  from  drunkenness 
and  improve  their  moral  character."  He  further 
says  :  "//  must  be  confessed  that  the  condition  of  our 
workmen  is  not  what  it  ought  to  be,  and  that  the 
mere  production  of  wealth  is  not  the  highest  aim  of 
government,  which  ought  to  care  for  the  happiness 
and  IV ell-being  of  the  peopled 

Sir  J.  Coleridge,  a  member  of  the  Gladstone  min- 
istry, said  :  "  Our  laborers  live  hardly,  work  very 
long,  and  have  at  the  end  of  life  nothing  to  hope 
for." 

Neither  religion.  Education,  nor  temperance,  nor 
courts  of  justice  can  elevate  a  people  living  hud- 
dled up  like  pigs,  says  the  good  and  learned  Dr. 
Blakie.  The  same  great  authority  continues:  Ty- 
phus, consumption,  scrofula,  etc.,  are  wasting  away 
the  laboring  people  in  the  densely  populated  tene- 
ment houses,  and  the  victims  of  typhus  alone 
among   workmen    in    the    prime    of    life,    number 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  393 

annually  doubly  the  fallen  on  the  battle-field  of 
Waterloo.  Love  of  home,  says  this  same  philan- 
thropic divine,  is  associated  with  regard  for  father 
and  mother  and  their  precepts.  Filthy  tenements 
are  no  home,  and,  hence,  no  lesson  to  the  heart ; 
all  the  purer  feelings  even  of  a  mother  and  sister 
are  deadened  by  them.  The  cleanest  can  be  but 
untidy,  dirty,  wretched,  discontented  and  disorderly 
in  such  hovels,  and  the  preference  for  the  public 
house  to  such  quarters  become  a  necessity.  The 
vice  and  filth  in  the  crowded  dwellings  of  the  poor 
counteract  all  the  lessons  of  religion  and  humanity. 
A  miserable  hovel  destroys  all  home  feeling  and 
family  ties,  and  plants  atrocity,  barbarity  and  crime 
in  their  place.  The  only  remedy  are  small,  neat 
homes  out  of  the  city  the  laboring  man  can  even 
become  proprietor  of;  he  is  stimulated  by  this 
method  to  saving,  and,  being  provident  and  accu- 
mulating property,  becomes  a  useful  citizen  every 
way.  There  are  8,000  to  10,000  such  workingmen 
who  have  got  their  own  homes  about  Birmingham, 
Happy  homes  are  the  chief  cause  of  the  prosperity 
of  a  country.  Such  are  the  thoughts  and  the  expe- 
rience of  the  learned  Blakie. 

Purity,  affection,  thrift  and   industry  are  lessons 

of  a  clean,  neat   and  attractive  home.     "  Lille  in 

France,"  says  the  thoughtful   Fix,  "  with  a  most 

dense  population,  is  also  the  most  miserable,  most 

17* 


394  T^^^^  People  and  their  Hoj/ies.  * 

drunken,  obscene  place,  with  nothing  but  dirt,  mis- 
ery and  vice." 

The  same  author  says  :  "  Love  of  labor,  of  order 
and  economy  will  always  be  found  in  a  home  that 
attaches  the  w'orkman  to  his  family ;  there  he  sacri- 
fices low  desire  and  studies  thrift  for  the  sake  of 
the  children  and  a  home  that  is  attractive." 

Self-respect,  regard  for  himself  and  his  place  in 
society,  is  one  of  the  mainsprings  of  keeping  aloof 
from  every  degrading  vice,  be  it  drunkenness  or  any 
other  moral  defilement.  But  can  any  one  reared 
in  the  horrid  filth  of  the  tenements  of  crowded 
cities  be  conscious  of  human  dignity?  Or  is  it  not 
rather  a  mockery  to  speak  to  such  men  of  the  high 
dignity  of  their  being?  Provident  thrift  or  care 
for  the  future  has  no  room  in  a  man  who  is  suffer- 
ing from  a  thousand  present  ills.  The  poor  every- 
where suffer  partly  from  want  of  intelligence,  so- 
briety, thrift  and  self-respect,  and  their  surround- 
ings foster  these  very  defects.  And  yet,  regard  for 
ourselves  is  intimately  connected  with  regard  for 
our  fellows,  for  human  nature,  and,  therefore,  for  the 
rights  of  other  men.  Regard  for  human  nature 
leads  to  trusting  in  it  and  believing  in  its  ujjward 
tendencies,  which  lead  to  hope,  exertion,  improve- 
ment and  elevation.  Vagrancy  is  one  of  the  chief 
causes  of  crime,  and  miserable  hovels  lead  to  it  by 
destroying  all  home  attachment.    Let  all  who  study 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  395 

the  sources  of  crime  notice  this  connection  between 
the  homes  of  the  people  and  vagrancy  and  crime. 

Clean  homes  certainly  should  be  made  possible 
to  the  honest  laborer,  a  privilege  not  even  denied 
to  crime  (Hill).  When  the  prisons  are  in  better 
order  than  the  homes  of  laborers,  crime  is  encour- 
aged. 

So  killing  are  the  crowded  dwellings  of  the  poor 
that  the  English  Commissioners  officially  report 
that  the  laboring  population  of  large  cities  would 
soon  be  gone,  if  the  influx  from  the  country  would 
not  make  up  for  the  slaughter.  Dundee,  with  its 
once  proverbially  splendid  Scotch  population,  alas  ! 
what  a  spectacle  it  offers  to-day  ! 

What  haggard  looks  the  spinners  of  Lyons  or 
those  of  Spitalfields  in  London  present  !  And  yet, 
the  moral  debasement  of  which  the  physical  degra- 
dation is  the  cause  as  well  as  the  index,  is  the  worst 
feature  of  the  whole. 

These  squalid  homes,  says  Buret,  drive  children 
from  4  to  8  years  into  horribly  dirty  streets,  where 
they  already  young  contract  vagrant  habits. 

Rev.  Canon  Gjrdleston,  of  the  English  Episcopal 
Church,  said  in  a  meeting  of  his  brothers  in  the 
ministry :  The  laborers  live  in  hovels  without 
ventilation  or  the  surroundings  necessary  for  ordi- 
nary decency.  Not  one  of  those  present  would  con- 
sent to  stable  their  horses  in  these  hovels;  hovels 


39^  The  People  and  their  Homes. 

which  bred  a  race  of  men  who,  from  want  of  do- 
mestic comfort,  spent  their  lives  in  the  pothouse, 
and  who  had  nothing  to  look  forward  to  but  to  be 
buried  in  a  pauper's  grave  ;  hovels  which  bred  a 
race  of  women  whose  maidenly  blushes  were 
blutched  in  consequence  of  the  scenes  they  were 
obliged  to  witness  through  want  of  proper  sleep- 
ing accommodations.  The  clergy  might  keep  aloof 
from  the  labor  question  because  it  might  be  sup- 
posed that  social  questions  were  not  within  their 
province.  He  was  bound  to  acknowledge  that  the 
clergy  could  not  consider  themselves  free  from 
blame,  and  that  a  great  weight  of  responsibility 
lay  at  their  doors.  They  ought  from  the  pulpit 
deliver  themselves  more  frequently  from  this  re- 
sponsibility. He  solemnly  declared  that  the  man  he 
should  fear  most  to  meet  at  the  last  great  day  was 
the  poor  laborer,  who,  perhaps,  if  he  himself  had 
exercised  his  ministry  more  faithfully  and  more 
fearlessly  in  denouncing  social  abuses,  might  have 
been  spared  a  life  of  misery  and  penury  and  a  pau- 
per's grave. 

A  voice  as  clear,  powerful  and  bold,  that  once 
thrilled  the  people  of  Boston  from  the  pulpit  in 
Music  Hall,  said  :  "  Look  at  the  houses  the  poor 
live  in,  without  comfort  or  convenience,  without 
sun,  air  or  water ;  damp,  cold,  filthy  and  crowded 
to  excess.     In  one  section   of  the  city  there  are 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  397 

thirty-seven  persons  on  an  average  in  each  house. 
Consider  the  rents  paid  by  this  class  of  our  broth- 
ers. It  is  they  who  pay  the  highest  rate  for  their 
dwelHngs,  paying  often  30  per  cent,  on  valuation. 
If  your  bills  of  mortality  were  made  out  so  as  to 
show  deaths  in  each  ward  of  the  city,  I  think  all 
would  be  astonished  at  the  results.  Of  one  hun- 
dred children  of  poor  working  people  in  Boston 
only  thirty-eight  live  five  years,  only  eleven  be- 
come fifty !  The  mortality  among  the  poor  is 
greater  in  Boston  than  in  any  city  in  Europe,  and 
the  death  rate  among  their, children  is  increasing." 
So  far  Theodore  Parker. 

Another  friend  of  the  race,  the  great  and  gifted 
Channing,  speaking  of  the  influence  of  the  poor 
man's  dwelling  on  his  domestic  affection,  says : 
"  The  delicate  sentiments  find  much  to  chill  them 
in  the  abodes  of  indigence.  A  family  crowded  into 
a  single  and  often  narrow  apartment,  which  must 
answer  at  once  the  ends  of  parlor,  kitchen,  bed- 
room, nursery  and  hospital,  must,  without  great 
energy  and  self-respect,  want  neatness,  order  and 
comfort.  Its  members  are  perpetually  exposed  to 
annoying  petty  impertinence.  The  decencies  of 
life  can  be  with  difficulty  observed.  Woman  a 
drudge  and  in  dirt  loses  her  attractions.  The 
young  grow  up  without  the  modest  reserve  and 
delicacy  of  feeling  in  which  purity  finds  so  much  of 


398  The  People  and  their  Homes. 

its  defense.  Coarseness  of  manner  and  language, 
too  sure  a  consequence  of  a  mode  of  life  which 
allows  no  seclusion,  becomes  the  habit  almost  of 
childhood,  and  hardens  the  mind  for  vicious  inter- 
course in  future  years.  The  want  of  a  neat,  or- 
derly home  is  among  the  chief  evils  of  the  poor. 
Crowded  in  filth,  they  cease  to  respect  one  another. 
The  social  affections  wither  amid  perpetual  noise, 
confusion  and  clashing  interests.  The  poor  often 
fare  worse  than  the  uncivilized  savage  in  his  ruder 
hut,  which  he  can  leave  for  the  bright  light  and 
pure  air  of  heaven.  The  poor  man  in  the  city 
must  choose  between  his  close  room  and  the  nar- 
row street.  He  has  a  home  without  the  comfort 
of  a  home." 

There  is  hardly  a  faculty  or  virtue  in  man  but  it 
is  fostered  by  a  home  that  is  deserving  of  the  name. 
Franklin's  motto,  "  Do  everything  in  its  proper 
time,  in  its  proper  place,  use  everything  in  its 
proper  use,"  or  orderliness,  industry,  thrift,  taste 
or  a  sense  of  beauty,  delicacy  of  feeling,  kindli- 
ness, self-regard,  culture,  purity,  serenity,  joy  and 
happiness,  contentment,  meditation  upon  our  past 
conduct  and  forethought  as  to  the  future,  family 
discipline  and  regard  to  the  duties  and  relations 
between  parents  and  children  or  wife  and  husband 
— nothing  of  all  this  is  possible  in  an  unclean  den, 
in  which  all  persons  and  functions  are  mixed  uj)  in 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  399 

one  general  confusion  and  disorder,  and  everything 
is  out  of  time,  place  and  joint. 

Orderly  homes  among  the  working  people  are 
the  best  means  for  the  spreading  of  a  higher  civili- 
zation through  the  moral  elevation  of  the  masses, 
and  the  preservation  of  the  family  in  all  its  elevat- 
ing influences.  Facilities  for  the  acquisition  of 
these  homes  cannot  fail  to  reconcile  labor  to  capi- 
tal and  to  attach  the  workmen  to  our  present  state 
of  society.  There  is  no  other  means  by  which  pau- 
perism as  well  as  crime  can  be  destroyed,  and  the 
individual,  the  state  and  the  race  can  be  saved  but 
by  the  home  and  the  family,  the  school  and  nursery 
of  the  civilization  of  the  race. 

Aside  from  moral  considerations  and  economical 
reasons,  sanitary  facts  of  the  gravest  sort  demand 
the  formation  of  workmen  settlements  in  the 
country. 

We  shall  shift  our  studies  to  Prussia,  that  we 
may  have  the  double  advantage  of  observing  the 
effects  of  crowding  under  other  skies  and  through 
other  eyes,  which  cannot  but  correct  or  confirm 
our  observations  made  in  France,  England  and  the 
United  States. 

The  efficient  statistics  of  Prussia  show  that  while 
in  Westphalia  the  proportion  of  occupants  to  each 
house  was,  in  1855-1858,  6.91  to  i,  and  in  the 
Rhenish  Province,  6.04  to  i  ;  the  proportion  in  the 


40O  The  People  a?id  tJieir  Homes. 

district  of  Gumbinnen  was  at  the  end  of  1855,  8.97 
to  I,  and  at  the  end  of  1858,  9.19  to  i,  and  here  it 
was  that  typhus  became  epidemic  and  raged  like 
a  pest. 

Dr.  L.  Muller  writes:  "I  was  soon  convinced 
that  the  time,  locaHty  and  origin  of  the  disease,  as 
also  its  gradual  spread,  was  the  effect  of  human 
or  animal  perspiration  accumulating  in  close  places, 
and  that  it  thence  spread  to  other  places  and  be- 
came epidemic." 

Dr.  C.  Canzow,  the  medical  inspector  of  the  Gum- 
binnen district,  in  his  account  of  the  origin  of  the 
typhus  epidemy  in  the  overcrowded  dwellings  of  the 
laboring  people,  says :  "  It  is  not  saying  too  much 
that  spotted  fever  has  become  endemic  among  the 
permanently  suffering  workmen  of  this  district." 

Dr.  Pappenheimer,  the  celebrated  sanitarian  and 
medical  adviser,  says  in  his  publication  on  Sani- 
tary Police :  "  The  study  of  typhus  in  lodging- 
houses,  in  certain  town  quarters,  hospitals,  work- 
houses, ships  and  prisons  leads  always  to  the  same 
result.  Every  epidemic  typhus,  which  is  not  the 
effect  of  hunger  and  want,  is  the  result  of  over- 
crowded and  filthy  localities.  Filth  and  overcrowd- 
ing produce  typhus,  very  often  becoming  epidemic, 
and  affecting  impoverished  nations  or  such  as  are  in 
a  suffering  condition  in  consequence  of  a  commercial 
crisis,  war  or  the  faihire  of  crops.     We  physicians 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  401 

cannot  cure  such  national  sufferings.  We  have  no 
medicine  against  hunger,  nor  can  we  prevent  the 
overcrowding  of  houses,  the  home  and  origin  of 
typhus."  Such  is  the  medical  experience  in  refer- 
ence to  crowded  dwellings  in  Prussia. 

The  greater  part  of  60,000  illegitimate  births, 
and  of  probably  20,000  annual  infanticides  in  Eng- 
land, are  traced,  in  the  Transactions  of  Social  Sci- 
ence, to  the  disgusting  conditions  in  which  the 
masses  are  forced  to  live.  The  London  Times  says : 
"  If  we  wish  to  prevent  infanticide,  we  must  guard 
a  woman  against  the  cruel  conditions  in  which  the 
crime  is  usually  perpetrated.  Is  everything  really 
done  by  us  which  ought  to  be  done  ?  Most  assur- 
edly it  is  not  done.  As  long  as  the  poor  have  to 
live  in  a  manner,  which  makes  the  separation  of 
the  sexes  impossible  and  renders  impracticable  the 
observance  of  common  decency,  these  crimes  will 

be  perpetrated Let  us  make  a  real,  earnest 

exertion  to  improve  the  dwellings  of  the  poor,  and 
with  the  dwellings  the  morals  of  the  inhabitants 
will  mend." 

Dr.  Farr  says :  "  The  children  of  that  idolatrous 
nation  that  passed  its  children  through  the  fire,  an 
offering  to  Moloch,  were  hardly  more  in  danger  of 
losing  their  lives  than  those  born  in  our  large  cities." 

Of  a  hundred  children  born,  live  to  the  age  of 
five  years,  in 


Norwegia 

.     .     83 

Sweden    . 

.     .     80 

England  . 

.     .     74 

Belgium  . 

.     •     73 

France     . 

.     .     71 

402  The  People  aiid  tJieir  Homes, 

Prussia 68 

Holland 67 

Austria 64 

Russia 62 

Italy 61 

But  the  very  low  mortality  rates  of  the  well  situ- 
ated lower  the  average  mortality  of  the  whole,  and 
hide  the  real  state  of  the  case,  which  is  ugly,  in- 
deed, as  the  mortality  among  the  laborers  crowded 
into  the  tenements  of  large  cities  rises  to  the  fear- 
ful proportion  of  50,  60,  70  and  even  more  in  100! 

Villerm6  showed  that  the  mortality  was  in  French 
arrondissements : 

With    7  per  cent  poor  dwellings  .     .     i  person  in  72 
«     22         "  "  .     .     I         "         65 

"     38        "  "  .     .     I         "         45 

In  England,  sanitary  investigations  show  a  mor- 
tality in  dwellings  of 


202  square  yards  to  each  person     .     . 

.     .     I  in  49 

lOI               "                           "                  .     . 

.     .     I  "  41 

32             "                       "                .     . 

.    .     I  "  36 

Of  all   the  deaths  from   cholera  in  London,  in 
1849,  belonged  to  the 

Higher  classes 26  in  1,000 

Middle        " 157  "  1,000 

Laboring    " 817  "  1,000 

This,  of  course,  is  entirely  out  of  proportion  to 
the  number  of  the  various  classes. 
In  Brussels,  die 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  403 

In  the  quarter,  with  the  best  dwellings     ,     .     i  in  53  persons. 
"  "  "       poorest     "  .     .     I   "  29        " 

In  Zurich,  in  Switzerland,  the  average  life  in  the 
best  quarters  is  40  years,  in  the  poorest  it  is  28.3- 

Dr.  Lankester  shows  the  mortality  in  one  of  the 
best  localities  of  London  to  be  11  in  1,000,  in  an- 
other one,  among  the  laborers,  it  is  25  in  i,ooo- 
The  same  sanitarian  shows  the  loss  of  England 
from  insalubrious  dwellings  to  be  100,000  lives  per 
annum  ;  and  as,  where  so  many  die,  many  more  arc 
sick,  a  simple  calculation  will  show  that  100,000 
preventable  deaths  imply  a  national  annual  loss  of 
$50,000,000!  And  fully  as  much,  and  more,  do 
the  United  States  suffer,  as  our  mortality  rates  are 
much  higher,  and  human  labor  is  worth  more  here 
than  in  England.  We  doubt  not  the  interest  on 
our  whole  war  debt  could  be  paid  with  what  we  lose 
by  the  annual  slaughter  of  our  working  population. 

In  proportion  to  the  density  of  population,  rent, 
and  with  it  pauperism,  increase,  the  morality  of 
the  people  is  lowered  and  their  death  rate  of  mor- 
tality rises.  Let  the  reader  reflect  upon  the  con- 
tents of  the  following  table  : 

Occupants      Proportion  of  .,,     .. .       ,      Mortality 

Town.  to  each  re„t  to  in-  niegjtimate        ,;,  ,,^ 

house.  come.  oirt/is.         population. 


London 
Berlin    .     . 
Paris      .     . 

Petersburg' 
Vienna  .     . 


^  tV~'»  *o  '             4  pr-  ct.  24 

32             \-}i  to  I  16       "  25 

35                 %  to  I  20       "  28 

52 26       "  41 

55  %-yi  to  I  5'       "  47 


404  Tlie  People  and  tJieir  Homes. 

Minute  statistical  investigations  show  that  in  the 
same  country  where  no  other  influences  modify 
the  result,  crime  is  in  proportion  to  the  density 
of  population  and  the  suddenness  of  its  increase, 
and,  hence,  so  much  of  crime  at  the  present 
movement  of  population  from  the  country  to  the 
cities.  Drunkenness,  prostitution,  scrofula,  phthisis, 
zymotic  diseases,  insanity,  suicide,  and,  at  last, 
death,  perhaps  the  only  possible  medicine  against 
all  this  and  other  unmentionable  corruption,  are  aH 
in  proportion  to  the  density  of  population,  the 
breeder  of  all  that  is  unwholesome  for  the  body  as 
well  as  for  the  soul,  and  for  the  state  as  well  as  for 
the  individual. 

The  rapid  increase  of  dense  city  populations,  says 
Beale,  and  the  unchecked  advance  of  huge  masses  of 
human  misery  and  destitution — mental,  moral  and 
corporeal — exhibited  in  every  country  of  Christian 
Europe  must  end  in  barbarism  and  despotism,  if 
the  right  sort  of  Education  does  not  come  to  the 
rescue. 

We  have  already  referred  to  the  barrenness  of 
statistics  in  which  extremes  of  all  sorts  thrown 
together  produce  insipid  averages,  which  hide  the 
true  condition  of  things.  Let  our  sanitary  authori- 
ties give  us  the  mortality  of  different  sections  by 
themselves,  and  not  throw  the  pestilential  and  the 
salubrious  together  and  produce  the  false  impres- 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  405 

sion  that  things  are  just  tolerable,  when,  in  fact, 
this  medium  condition  exists  only  on  the  paper 
where  the  best  and  the  worst  are  thrown  together, 
while  in  reality  only  extremes  are  met  with.  We 
talk  of  a  rate  of  mortality  of  36  in  1,000,  when  the 
fact  is  that  in  the  best  houses  the  mortality  is  15 
to  20  in  1,000,  and  in  the  worst  it  is  40  to  50  in 
1,000. 

Mr.  Michael,  the  Mayor  of  Swansea,  in  England, 
read  before  the  Association  of  Social  Science  a 
paper  in  which  he  divides  his  town,  according  to 
the  density  of  its  districts,  into  three  divisions : 

A With  a  mortality  of  1 1  in  1,000  population. 

B "  "  20         " 

C "  "  36         " 

Or,  taking  the  percentage  of  the  houses  in  which 
deaths  occurred,  and  taking  groups  of  five  houses 
and  the  deaths  occurring  in  them  during  a  series 
of  five  years,  he  found  of  the  buildings  in  district 

A,  21-29  pr.  ct.  had  deaths,  or  I  death  in  5  houses  in  5  years. 

B,  up  to  50    "  "  "  2        "  " 

C,  90-117     "  "  "  I        "  " 

Out  of  127  population,  29  died  in  5  years  in  the 
poorest  district,  which  gives  58  in  1,000,  while  the 
mortality  of  the  whole  district  is  24  in  1,000,  and 
that  of  the  best  portion  by  itself  is  11.6  in  1,000. 

Dr.  Grunhow,  an  authority  well  known  in  the 
sanitary  world,  in   an   elaborate   paper  before  the 


4o6  The  People  and  their  Homes. 

Association  of  Social  Science,  shows,  while  the  mor- 
tality of  Glendale,  a  healthy  rural  district  of  Eng- 
land, for  a  number  of  years  was  15.09  per  l,ooo, 
that  of  Liverpool  was  36.35  per  1,000!  And  while 
the  average  annual  deaths  in  Glendale  from  pul- 
monary diseases  were  216  to  100,000  population, 
the  average  annual  mortality  from  the  same  cause 
to  the  same  number  of  population  was,  in  Liver- 
pool, 1,000. 

The  death  rate  of  children  from  nervous  diseases 
is  at  Glendale  40  in  100,000  population.  In  Man- 
chester it  is  393  ! 

Infantile  deaths  from  diarrhoeal  diseases  at  Glen- 
dale were  for  a  number  of  years  57  in  100,000 
population,  at  Manchester  1,945  in  100,000! 

Deaths  from  all  causes  of  male  children  under  5 
years,  were  at  Glendale,  1 848-1 854,  3,499  in  100,000, 
in   Manchester  there  were  during  the  same  time, 

13,539- 

It  is  not  the  location  or  country  that  makes  so 

striking  a  difference,  for,  as  we  have  already  had 
opportunity  to  observe,  the  best  buildings  in  the 
cities  have  as  low  a  mortality  as  the  best  rural  dis- 
tricts have.  Unwholesome  employment,  crowding, 
intemperance,  want,  misery  and  profligacy,  all  unite 
to  make  cities  a  pest.  The  low  stature  and  narrow 
chests  of  the  artisans  in  cities  are  proverbial. 

Dr.  Farr  shows  that  the  mortality  of  towns  is  in 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  407 

direct  numeral  proportion  to  the  density  of  popu- 
lation. 

But  not  only  does  the  mortality  of  a  district  in- 
crease with  the  density  of  its  population,  but  the 
fecundity  of  a  population  falls  with  the  rise  in  its 
number. 

In  nine  of  twenty  towns  in  England,  which  num- 
bered over  40,000  population,  the  deaths  outnum- 
bered the  births,  and  the  increase  of  the  population 
in  all  was  due  to  the  movement  of  the  population 
from  the  country.  In  Stockholm,  Petersburg,  Mos- 
cow, Venice,  Rouen,  and  many  other  cities,  the 
population  would  soon  dwindle  down  to  nothing 
without  this  emigration  from  the  country.  In  no 
city  is  the  proportion  of  births  to  deaths  as  large 
as  in  the  surrounding  country. 

In  the  country  districts  of  Scotland  the  annual 
surplus  of  births  over  deaths  amounts  to  1.55  per 
cent,  of  the  population.  In  the  city  districts  it 
amounts  to  1.33  per  cent,  and  in  Glasgow,  Edin- 
burgh, Dundee,  Aberdeen  and  others,  the  excess 
of  births  over  deaths  is  reduced  to  1.13  per  cent. 

It  was  calculated  in  1857  that  of  the  inhabitants 
of  England  and  Wales  8,250,000  persons  living  on 
2,150,000  acres,  constituting  the  city  population, 
the  annual  death  rate  was  25  per  1,000.  The  re- 
maining 9,750,000  persons  living  on  350,000,000 
acres,  constituting  the  country  population,  show  an 


4o8  riic  Pioplf  and  tJicir  Homes. 

annual  death  rate  of  17  per  1,000,  a  difference  of 
8  deaths  for  every  1,000  persons,  or  8,000  for  every 
million  of  population.  Of  course,  as  our  mortality 
has  not  as  yet  been  reduced  to  that  which  it  is  in 
England,  the  annual  slaughter  of  our  working  popu- 
lation is  much  larger.  We  are  very  nice  about 
many  little  things,  and  cultivate  social  murder  as 
one  of  the  fine  arts.  We  strain  at  a  gnat  and  swal- 
low a  camel. 

Low  rates  of  life  lessen  the  working  ability  of 
the  masses  eight  to  ten  years. 

The  population  born  in  large  cities  under  the 
influence  of  noxious  physical  agencies  is  inferior 
in  physical  organization,  tending  to  become  short- 
lived, reckless,  intemperate  and  little  susceptible 
of  moral  improvement. 

Dr.  Baly  showed  that  the  mortality  from  cholera 
in  England  and  Wales  was,  in  1854,  in 

134  districts  with  91 5  population  to  the  square  mile,  65  to  10,000 
404       "         "     235         "  "  "         "       7 

85       "         "     122         "  "  "        "       o 

Dr.  Stockton-Hough  has  carefully  collected  the 
most  reliable  statistics  bearing  upon  the  healthful- 
ness  of  city  and  country,  and  finds  the  old  adage 
verified  that  the  city  is  but  another  name  for  the 
grave.  London  has  yearly  10,000  more  deaths  than 
births.  Humanity,  if  living  entirely  in  such  large 
cities,  would  be  obliterated  in  less  than  200  years. 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  409 

Crowding,  want,  misery,  luxury,  effeminacy,  vice, 
corruption  and  crime  in  high  and  low  places  de- 
stroy mankind  in  large  cities. 

The  mortality  among  children  from  I  to  5  years 
in  one  hundred  born  is,  in  New  York  city,  50  per 
cent.,  in  the  country  38  per  cent. 

The  average  life  in  the  state  of  Rhode  Island  is 
31.45  per  cent;  in  Providence,  the  largest  town  in 
the  state,  it  was  but  27.9  during  15  years  ending 
1870. 

In  the  country  districts  of  England  202  out  of 
1,000  deaths  occur  over  70  years  of  age,  in  Liver- 
pool but  90.  In  the  country  the  average  age  is  38 
years,  in  Liverpool  it  is  27  years.  In  the  agricul- 
tural districts  of  England  20.7  in  every  100  per- 
sons attain  45  years ;  in  the  four  great  cities  of  the 
kingdom  only  17.5  reach  that  age.  The  average 
life  in  the  eastern  district  of  London  is  25  to  30 
years ;  in  the  agricultural  regions  it  is  40  to  50 
years.  General  Walker  gives  the  average  life  in 
the  United  States  for  1870  as  39.25  years ;  in  New 
York  city  and  Philadelphia  it  is  only  25  years. 
18 


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The  People  and  their  Homes.  411 

The  average  life  in  the  cities  of  France  is  35 
years,  in  the  country  it  is  55  years  ! 

According  to  the  Registrar-General  of  England 
the  mortality  in  districts  with 

I  or  less  persons  to  i  acre,  is  16S  to  10,000  population. 
100  to  250         "  "       "      "  262         "  " 

In  large  cities  the  mortality  to  each  10,000  is,  for 

London,  with  50,000  persons  to  the  square  mile,  251. 
Leeds         "     87,256        "  "  "  272. 

Manch'ter"   100,000        "  "  "  337. 

Liverpool  "   138,000        "  "  "  348. 

For  more  than  half  a  century  the  rush  of  popu- 
lation has  been  more  than  what  is  wholesome  from 
the  country  into  the  cities,  as  the  following  table 
will  show  at  a  glance  as  far  as  the  United  States 
are  concerned : 


City  population. 

Country  population. 

1790  .   . 

.     .       3.4  per  cent. 

94.6  per  cent. 

1840  .   . 

.     .       8.5       " 

91.5       " 

1870  .    . 

.     .     20.9       " 

79.1       " 

This  same  movement  of  population  modern  in- 
dustry brought  about  in  England,  where  the  pro- 
portion was,  in 

City  population.  Country  population. 

1690 26  per  cent.       74  per  cent. 

1 861 56   "  44   "  _ 

To  realize  still  more  the  movement  of  population 
from  the  coimtry  into  the  cities,  let  us  consider  the 


412  The  People  and  their  Homes. 

growth  of  cities  in  the  United  States  within  this 
centur}%  which  is  for 


1790. 

1820. 

1850. 

1870. 

Boston  .     .     . 

18,038 

43,298 

136,881 

250,526 

New  York  .     . 

33.131 

123,706 

515.547 

942,292 

Philadelphia    . 

42,520 

112,772 

340,045 

674,022 

Baltimore   .     . 

13.503 

62,738 

169,054 

267,354 

New  Orleans  . 

6.693 

27,176 

116,375 

191,418 

Cincinnati  .     . 

9,642 

115.436 

216,239 

St.  Louis     .     . 

.... 

4,528 

77,860 

310,864 

Chicago      .     . 

.... 

29,963 

4.853 
(1840) 

298,977 

This  movement  of  the  population  toward  the 
cities  is  not  by  any  means  pecuHar  to  America ;  it 
is  our  modern  system  of  manufacturing,  and  the 
people  flocking  to  the  cities  to  make  their  fortunes. 
The  increase  of  the  population  in  England  between 
the  census  of  1850  and  i860  was  for  cities  17  per 
cent,  and  for  the  country  3.9  per  cent. 

For  the  study  of  race  deterioration  and  its  pre- 
vention, this  movement  of  population  from  the 
country  to  the  city  is  the  more  important,  as  the  city 
combines  all  the  various  causes  of  deterioration, 
and  must  the  more  tell  upon  the  population. 

There  the  air  is  vitiated  b\'  a  lessened  percent- 
age of  ozone  and  an  increase  of  ammonia,  carbonic 
acid  and  other  impurities  and  the  temperature  is 
altered  ;  it  is  there  we  find  insalubrious  buildings 
and  occupations,  epidemics,  syphilis,  luxury,  effem- 


The  People  and  their  Homes  413 

inacy  and  all  sorts  of  extravagance,  pauperism, 
drunkenness,  insanity  and  crime. 

The  city  mortality  is  high  enough  compared  with 
the  mortality  in  the  country,  and  yet  the  worst  is 
only  realized  when  we  consider  that  the  rate  of 
mortality  is  excessive  among  infants,  the  cities, 
however,  receive  a  great  influx  of  adult  population 
from  the  country  which  bore  the  risk.  So,  for  in- 
stance, are  of  the  942,292  population  of  the  city 
of  New  York  of  the  census  of  1870,  419,091  born 
somewhere  else,  and  there  the  greater  risk  of  their 
early  mortality  was  born.  The  same  is  the  case 
with  111,174  out  of  250,000  population  of  Boston. 
In  London,  of  the  population  under  20  years  of  age, 
26  per  cent.,  and  of  those  over  20  years,  53  per  cent, 
were  born  outside  of  London.  And  the  same  is  true 
of  all  growing  cities,  and  gives  them  a  much  better 
sanitary  aspect  than  they  are  entitled  to.  For 
many  of  their  healthy  citizens  have  been  reared  in 
the  country,  and,  receiving  all  the  time  additions 
of  adult  citizens,  their  proportion  of  infant  popula- 
tion is  smaller  than  it  is  in  the  country,  and  their 
rate  of  mortality  should,  therefore,  be  much  smaller, 
while,  in  fact,  it  is  much  larger  than  in  the  country. 

London  boasts  very  much  upon  its  low  rate  of 
mortality,  but  600,000  of  its  enterprising  adult  citi- 
zens are  the  picked  men  of  all  England,  and  it 
requires  just  an  annual  influx  of  1 8,000  men  and  a 


414  ^Z'^'  i^>-'ople  and  iluir  Homes. 

national  nursery  of  2,000,000  rural  population,  that 
sends  the  supply  and  bears  the  heavy  mortaHty 
incidental  to  the  bringing  up  of  such  a  number  of 
adults,  and  then  London  and  the  like  growing 
cities  boast  upon  tJicir  healthy  population  and  their 
small  mortality  rates. 

Infants  being  delicate,  the  unhealthfulness  of 
city  life  shows  itself  first,  but  not  by  any  means 
exclusively,  upon  them.  Though  marriages  are 
more  frequent  in  the  city,  births  are  less  numer- 
ous than  in  the  country ;  and  though  adults  are  more 
numerous  in  the  city,  the  proportion  of  men  over 
forty-five  years  is  there  smaller  than  in  the  country. 

Just  as  fallacious  is  the  comparison  of  mortality 
rates  of  different  cities  and  states,  without  taking 
into  account  the  proportion  of  immigration  received 
by  both  and  their  proportion  of  infant  population. 
So,  for  instance,  have  Massachusetts,  Maine  and 
Connecticut  but  10,000  infants  under  5  years  in 
every  100,000,  while  some  of  the  states,  like  Mis- 
souri, Nebraska  and  West  Virginia,  have  over 
15,000  infants  under  5  years  of  age  in  every  100,000, 
and,  consequently,  though  in  the  latter  states  the 
rate  of  mortaHty  may  be  greater,  their  sanitary 
condition  may  be  vastly  better. 

Typhus  fever,  the  disease  of  the  prime  of  life,  has, 
as  we  have  already  repeatedly  had  occasion  to  see, 
its  origin  in  such  impurity  of  air  as  is  produced  by 


TJie  People  and  their  Homes.  415 

overcrowding,  and  is  a  constant  cause  of  death, 
misery  and  pauperism.  If  death  does  not  result, 
a  low  state  of  health  becomes  the  rule.  Bad  air 
takes  away  appetite,  depresses  the  spirits,  lessens 
the  vital  power,  predisposes  to  disease,  and  a  re- 
lief is  sought  in  alcoholism.  The  children  lose  all 
sense  of  decency,  propriety  and  order,  and  go  to 
recruit  the  dangerous  classes.  It  would  be  cheaper 
to  send  children  thus  situated  to  a  first-class  board- 
ing school  and  put  them  in  a  way  to  become  fair, 
healthy  and  wise,  than  to  educate  them  downward 
into  thieves,  prostitutes  and  convicts,  and  keep  up 
an  expensive  police  force,  courts  and  jails,  and  lose 
beside  $25,000,000  property  per  annum. 

A  man  must  not  be  allowed  to  crowd  his  family 
into  less  than  necessary  breathing  space ;  but  he  is 
poor.  Do  we  on  that  account  permit  him  to  poi- 
son or  knock  on  the  head  those  depending  upon 
him  ?  Neither  should  he  be  allowed  to  kill  them 
with  bad  air.  Instruct  the  people  in  the  science 
of  health,  which  has  well  been  said,  is  the  science 
of  taking  plenty  of  good  air,  improve  what  houses 
we  have,  build  better  ones,  and  protect  the  rising 
generation  by  positive  enactments. 

W^e  protect  property — that  is  right.  But  life  is 
left  unprotected — that  is  wrong.  Herein  the  age 
is  erring.  Everything  is  allowable  within  legal 
foims  that  leads  to  wealth,  however  much  human 


4i6  The  People  a?id  tJieir  Homes. 

life  may  suffer  by  it.  Englishmen  send  out  armed 
piratical  crafts  to  force  their  poisonous  wares  or 
opium  cargoes  upon  unwilling  nations ;  and  Eng- 
land itself,  a  Christian  nation,  goes  to  war  to  force 
1  hundred  thousand  chests  of  opium  per  annum 
upon  hundreds  of  millions  of  men  in  Asia,  spread- 
ing thereby  misery,  death  and  madness,  and  bring- 
ing ruin  of  body  and  soul  upon  countless  people. 
But  then,  this  makes  commerce. 

This  must  cease,  or  we  shall  all  perish,  for  a  lie 
cannot  stand,  prop  it  up  as  much  as  we  may.  Life 
must  be  sacred  or  property  will  soon  cease  to  be  sacred. 
The  law  of  life  and  itssacredness  must  underlie  every 
other  law  and  institution.  Hygiene  must  become 
a  religion  extending  its  influence  in  every  direc- 
tion. And  the  homes  of  the  people  must,  above 
all,  be  brought  under  the  influence  of  the  law  of 
life  and  hygiene. 

Already  three  hundred  years  ago,  under  Queen 
Elizabeth,  the  following  law  was  passed  :  "  No 
owner  or  occupier  of  any  cottage  shall  suffer  more 
than  one  family  to  cohabit  therein  under  fine  of 
ten  shillings." 

The  London  Times  and  other  influential  papers, 
agree  that  the  legislature  has  a  right  for  the  pro- 
tection of  innocent  victims  to  fix  a  suitable  mini- 
nuini  of  breathing  space,  and  to  give  greater  power 
to  inspecting  officers. 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  417 

Sir  George  Strickland  says :  "  Wherever  you  have 
an  overcrowded  population  you  will  observe  im- 
paired health  and  morals,  and,  in  consequence,  lack 
of  energy  and  self-respect.  Sanitary  improvement 
is  the  first  step  toward  the  elevation  of  their  habits 
and  tastes." 

Mr.  Rawlinson  says :  "  In  my  large  experience  I 
have  found  overcrowding  everywhere  attended  by 
misery,  disease  and  crime.  The  people  can  no 
more  help  it  than  they  can  roll  back  the  sun  in  his 
course.  Healthy  people  may  go  into  abominable 
overcrowded  tenements,  but  nothing  but  disease 
and  misery  can  come  out  of  them.  The  formation 
of  suburban  villages  for  the  working  people,  with 
cheap  and  rapid  communication  with  the  cities, 
would  be  one  of  the  greatest  blessings  conferred 
upon  the  laboring  population  of  the  country." 

Dr.  Markham  says :  "  It  is  the  duty  of  the  em- 
ployer, and  he  should  be  bound  by  law  to  attend 
to  it,  that  work-people — while  engaged  at  work 
by  him — should  have  proper  accommodations,  so 
that  they  may  not  have  their  health  injured  by 
overcrowding.  People  do  not  know  that  over- 
crowding undermines  their  health,  and  the  first 
epidemic,  be  it  typhus,  smallpox  or  cholera,  de- 
stroys them  by  thousands." 

The    community   has  a   right    to    legislate    how 

much  of  a  lot  must  be  left  free  by  the  owner  for 
18* 


41 8  The  People  and  their  Homes. 

giving  scope  to  the  atmosphere  and  free  access  of 
light. 

We  cannot  legislate  work,  but  by  a  consistent 
sanitary  legislation  we  can  protect  the  people  in 
their  health  ;  and  when  they  will  have  this,  they 
will  find  every  other  desirable  thing. 

We  own  we  have  but  one  idea — in  Education,  in 
science,  in  industry,  in  government,  in  civilization 
and  in  religion — we  know  no  higher  and  no  more 
sacred  principle  than  even  this  regard  for  human 
life,  which  includes  everything  else  that  is  of  solid 
worth. 

There  is  an  ancient  people  whose  religion  and 
legislation  are  chiefly  founded  on  hygiene,  and  what 
spectacle  does  this  nation  present  ?  It  has  fur- 
nished the  world  with  a  code  of  morals  and  the 
spirit  to  live  up  in  a  measure  to  the  standard  placed 
before  them.  This  ancient  people — hardly  necessary 
to  name — is  preserved  to  this  day  in  spite  of  the 
ravages  of  time  and  the  persecutions  of  men,  and 
though  its  dietary  code  dates  back  thirty-five  hun- 
dred years,  when  nature's  laws  were  but  little  un- 
derstood, its  effects  on  the  Jewish  people  are  better 
told  by  the  comprehensive  figures  of  statistics  than 
by  long  discussions. 

The  most  exact  statistics  of  Prussia  show  the 
following  death  rates  at  the  various  ages  of  a  popu- 
lation of  100,000 : 


The  People  and  their  Homes.  419 

Christians.  Jews. 

Still  births 143  89 

o-i  year 697  453 

1-5  years 477  3^6 

5-14    " 202  151 

14-25    " 155  123 

25-45    " 334  231 

45-:7o    " 614  392 

70  and  over 339  330 

Average  mortality  in  100,000,  2,961  2,161 

The  pest  in  1346  hardly  touched  the  Jews,  as 
the  old  historian  Tschudi  vouches.  They  enjoyed 
the  same  immunity  in  1505,  according  to  Fracastor. 
They  u^ere  spared  from  the  intermittent  fever 
which  raged  at  Rome  in  1 691,  as  Rammazini  states. 
The  epidemic  dysentery  at  Nimeque,  according  to 
Degner,  spared  them.  The  Christian  sufferers  from 
the  pest  were,  therefore,  declared  the  victims  of 
wells  poisoned  by  the  Jews,  who,  in  fact,  owed  their 
immunity  to  their  conformity  to  the  laws  of  hygiene. 

Human  life  is  not  altogether  a  physical  process, 
it  is  the  basis  of  all  our  social  and  moral  relations ; 
whatever  touches  it  assumes  a  peculiar  importance. 

Whatever  shortens  the  life  of  man  degenerates 
his  race,  and  by  lowering  his  energy  and  powers 
lessens  the  number  of  great  men,  and  strikes  there- 
by a  blow  against  the  Bacons,  Newtons  and  Wash- 
ingtons ;  it  makes  us  a  scrofulous  and  cretin-like 
race,  unfit  to  govern  ourselves  or  the  state,  and  ren- 
ders us  slaves  to  passions  within  and  tyrants  without. 


420  TJie  People  and  their  Homes. 

Shorten  the  life  of  man,  and  knowledge  and  ex- 
perience are  not  put  to  half  their  use ;  inventions 
go  prematurely  to  the  grave  ;  and  the  proportion  of 
the  young,  and,  therefore,  of  the  unproductive,  of 
the  criminal,  of  the  inexperienced  and  the  foolish, 
of  the  turbulent,  of  births  and  funerals,  of  widow- 
hood and  orphanage,  of  vagabondism,  of  pauper- 
ism and  of  vice  and  crime,  is  increased. 

Shorten  the  life  of  man,  and  with  the  shortened 
generations  thought,  action,  government,  institu- 
tions and  systems  become  feverish,  the  constant, 
silent  action  of  time — which  alone  leads  to  healthy 
maturity — is  broken  ;  everything  is  hurried  through 
as  if  hardly  worth  doing  and  comes  into  the  world 
with  the  thought  of  leaving  it  in  its  mind,  with 
paleness  on  its  cheek,  wrinkles  on  its  brow  and  a 
coffin  on  its  back,  for  when  man  is  short-lived  his 
work  can  be  but  fleeting. 

Shorten  the  life  of  man,  and  principle,  character, 
moderation,  good  habits  and  wisdom — all  the  work 
of  many  years — lose  their  power  and  influence,  for 
young  people  incline  to  change  for  better  or 
worse,  just  as  age  is  conservative  and  preserves 
the  state. 

Shorten  the  life  of  man,  and  with  the  fulness  of 
years  disappears  the  sweetest  charity,  the  broadest 
toleration,  the  most  imperturbable  justice,  the  most 
consummate  skill  in  the  management  of  great  affairs, 


The  People  and  their  Ho77ies.  421 

and  the  steady  building  and  developing  spirit  which 
produces  in  science,  life  and  government  positive 
and  permanent  results,  as  Socrates,  Newton  and 
Humboldt  did. 

Shorten  the  life  of  man,  and  you  deprive  the 
workshop  of  the  strong  laborer,  commerce  of  the 
honest  and  trusted  merchant,  and  the  govern- 
ment of  the  wise  patriot.  Industry  will,  there- 
fore, languish,  commerce  dwindle  and  the  nation 
decay. 

Shorten  the  life  of  man,  and  you  strike  infancy 
and  ripe  age ;  the  one  destroys  love  in  the  family 
and  the  other  veneration  in  the  community,  and 
both  destroy  man's  motive  for  exertion  ;  for, 
while  man  naturally  works  for  his  children  and 
his  own  old  age,  an  excessive  mortality  destroys 
both. 

Shorten  the  life  of  man,  and  the  strong  though 
silent  influences  even  upon  rough  men  by  sweet 
and  holy  childhood  disappear ;  the  invigorating 
presence  of  men  in  their  best  estate  vanishes  with 
their  health,  and  the  earnestness  of  life  gives  way 
to  levity  when  venerable  age  is  taken  from  us. 
Every  age  as  every  sex  has  its  own  peculiar  quali- 
ties and  virtues,  and  men  and  institutions  arc  only 
perfected  by  the  silent  mutual  Education  of  all  the 
integral  parts  of  a  complete  humanity. 

But  the  disastrous  bearintjs  of  an  excessive  mor* 


422  The  People  and  tJuir  Ho)nes. 

tality  or  a  puny  humanity  shriveled  in  body  and 
mind,  in  thought,  motive  and  action,  are  beyond 
numbering ;  and  we  will  only  add  that  the  wanton 
slaughter  of  our  young  children  as  well  as  of  our 
prematurely  dying  parents,  cannot  but  breed  in  us 
such  an  indifference  and  carelessness  about  life  as 
will  crop  out  in  a  thousand  ways  as  social  murder, 
and  stamp  us  a  fratricidal  race.  Love,  goodness, 
beauty  and  truth  are  the  highest  functions  of  man, 
and  require  him  to  be  in  the  healthiest  condition  ; 
an  excessive  mortality  is  of  necessity  accompanied 
by  feebleness,  cunning,  treachery,  lying  and  low- 
mindedness.  A  long-lived  race  is  a  healthy,  free- 
dom-loving and  defending  race  ;  a  short-lived  race 
is  a  cowardly  race,  one  that  neither  loves  freedom 
nor  dares  defend  it — it  is  a  race  of  tyrants  and 
slaves.  It  is  a  race  without  truth,  bravery  or  mag- 
nanimity. A  race  hardly  worth  the  short  existence 
allotted  to  it.  It  is  bankrupt  in  body  and  soul,  and 
held  in  derision  by  God,  man  and  nature  ;  and  the 
best  it  can  do  is  to  perish  and  wipe  out  the  black- 
est spot  of  creation — a  race  that  has  cast  away  the 
noblest  heritage,  a  God-like  humanity. 

Do  we  lose  sight  of  the  great  subject  of  our 
essay.  Education?  Surely  not.  But  we  mean  to 
impress  the  all-important  fact,  that  the  miserable 
abodes  of  the  people,  breeding  disease,  vice,  drunk- 
enness and  crime,  render  all   true  Education   im- 


TJie  People  and  their  Homes.  423 

possible.  Schools  supported  by  dog-kennels  may 
manufacture  ciphering  rascals,  but  to  educate  men 
and  women  they  must  have  the  co-operation  of 
well-regulated  homes. 

We  dwell  upon  physical  C3mforts  for  the  masses 
as  the  lowest  round  which  must  be  passed  before 
the  highest  can  be  reached.  Destutt  De  Tracy,  the 
well-known  scholar  and  statesman,  says,  "  Neither  a 
legion  of  school  teachers  nor  the  professors  of  logic 
of  all  Europe  can  assist  as  much  the  civilization  of 
a  people,  as  an  additional  degree  of  well-being, 
which  gives  them  leisure,''  the  very  thing  without 
which  the  school  is  a  name  without  a  meaning. 

We  do  not  under-value  the  treasures  of  the  mind. 
With  Prof.  Jos.  Henry,  Renan  and  Prof  John  W. 
Draper,  we  assign  to  perfect  knowledge  the  highest 
place  in  the  State.  But  we  distinguish  philosoph- 
ical, practical  and  verbal  knowledge  or  vague  opin- 
ion;  the  first,  like  the  hidden  forces  of  nature,  is  a 
life  power,  and  all-penetrating  ;  the  second,  substan- 
tial like  matter,  is  the  very  foundation  of  society ;  and 
the  third,  like  shadows  vast  and  running  before  the 
things  which  cast  them,  spreads  darkness  and  works 
confusion  ;  and,  hence,  as  philosophy  is  attainable 
but  by  few  of  rare  talents  and  leisure,  we  are,  in 
the  interest  of  truth,  peace,  order  and  prosperity, 
in  favor  of  practical  knowledge  and  industrial  train- 
ing for  the  masses. 


PART    VII. 


THESCOURGES    OF    HUMANITY. 

In  a  treatise  on  Race  Education,  of  which  the 
prevention  of  human  deterioration  by  forestaUing 
bad  habits  or  hereditary  evil  tendencies  through 
correct  early  training  and  teaching,  forms  a  not  un- 
important part,  drunkenness,  often  hereditary  and 
more  frequently  the  child  than  the  parent  of  pov- 
erty, but  often  the  parent  of  insanity,  of  suicide 
and  of  crime,  claims  our  attention. 

Morell,  who  has  made  human  deterioration  a 
specialty,  mentions  in  his  pathological  studies  the 

case  of  F ,  who  was  the  son   of  an   excellent 

workman  early  given  to  hard  drinking.  He  in- 
herited the  tendency  to  strong  drink,  and  had 
seven  children.  The  first  two  died  in  infancy  of 
convulsions,  a  nervous  affection.  The  third  at- 
tained some  skill  in  handicraft,  but  fell  away  into  a 
state  of  idiocy  at  twenty-two  years  of  age.  The 
fourth  attained  a  certain  amount  of  intelligence, 
and  relapsed  into  profound  melancholy  with  a  ten- 
dency to  suicide,  which  terminated  in  harmless  im- 
becility. The  fifth  is  of  a  peculiarly  irritable  tem- 
(424) 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  425 

per,  and  has  broken  all  relations  with  the  family. 
The  sixth  was  a  daughter,  with  the  strongest 
hysteric  tendencies,  and  has  been  repeatedly  and 
seriously  troubled  in  her  reason. 

Here  is  another  pathological  study  of  a  gentle- 
man of  distinction  and  an  inveterate  inebriate. 
Four  of  his  children  perished  in  infancy,  as  the  chil- 
dren of  such  men  usually  do  ;  the  fifth,  a  son,  in 
spite  of  every  precaution  taken  by  Education,  was 
at  nineteen  the  heir  of  his  father's  vice  in  an  insane 
asylum  ;  as  a  child  he  was  extremely  cruel,  as  many 
children  of  inebriate  parents  are — the  terror  of  their 
playmates  and  of  innocent  little  animals. 

Morell  cites  many  cases  of  children  of  inebriates 
cursed  in  later  years  with  the  hereditary'  bent  of 
excessive  alcoholism,  leaving  one  insane  asylum 
for  the  other,  and  ending  in  marasmus,  general 
paralysis,  in  a  perfect  brutal  condition,  and  the 
utter  extinction  of  reason  and  conscience. 

The  same  great  author  and  physician  gives  the 
following  analysis  of  a  family  under  his  treatment. 
In  the  first  generation  :  immorality,  depravity,  ex- 
cessive alcoholism  and  moral  torpor.  In  the  sec- 
ond generation  :  hereditary  drunkenness,  mania  and 
general  paralysis.  In  the  third  generation  :  sobriety, 
hypochondria,  monomania  of  being  persecuted.  In 
the  fourth  generation  :  little  intellect  and  homicidal 
tendencies  ;   at  the  age  of  sixteen,  fits  of  mania, 


426  The  Scourges  of  Humanity. 

stupidity,  transition  to  idiocy  and  extinction  of  the 
race. 

Morell  further  says  :  "  I  constantly  find  the  chil- 
dren of  drunkards  in  the  asylums  for  the  insane, 
in  prisons  and  houses  of  correction.  The  deviation 
from  the  normal  type  of  humanity  shows  itself  in 
these  victims  by  the  arrest  of  the  development  of 
their  constitutional  system  as  well  as  by  a  vicious 
intellectual  disposition  and  cruel  instincts." 

Dr.  Elam  justly  remarks,  the  children  of  the  poor, 
where  this  evil  tendency  remains  uncorrected  by 
a  good  physical  and  moral  Education,  the  surround- 
ings are  vicious,  and  want  and  misery  irritate  a 
weakened  constitution,  the  consequences  of  drunk- 
enness in  the  parent  are  aggravated,  and,  hence, 
the  frightful  amount  of  insanity  among  the  poor. 

The  intellectual  and  moral  nature  of  man  is  his 
very  essence,  and  its  total  degradation  betokens  a 
morbidity  or  deviation  from  the  normal  type,  which 
cannot  be  but  hereditary. 

A  system  of  Education  that  aims  at  the  preser- 
vation of  the  human  race,  cannot  lose  sight  of 
drunkenness  and  its  prevention,  the  means  of  which 
are  many  and  decided,  and  form  the  natural  ele- 
ments of  a  practical  Education,  as  we  shall  have 
further  opportunity  to  show.  The  characteristic 
mental  features  found  by  Morell  in  the  children 
of    inebriates    and    which    demand    attention,   are 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  dt2j 

an  irresistible  wandering  from  place  to  place,  a 
want  of  purpose,  indecision,  lawlessness,  moral  ob- 
tuseness  and  a  taste  for  ardent  spirits.  What  a 
heritage  !  the  very  genius  of  pauperism  and  the 
high  road  to  crime  to  which  vagabondage  unfail- 
ingly leads.  The  desire  for  stealing  and  the  taste 
for  the  lowest  and  most  vicious  associations,  as  also 
a  spirit  refractory  to  all  regulations,  accompany  the 
morbid  appetite  for  strong  drink  in  the  victim  of 
hereditary  dipsomania. 

Maudsley  says,  drunkenness  in  the  parent  is  a 
cause  of  idiocy,  suicide  or  insanity  in  the  offspring, 
as  also  insanity  in  the  parent  may  occasion  dipso- 
mania in  the  offspring,  which  conclusively  proves 
the  deep-seated  deterioration  of  the  nervous  system 
arising  from  drunkenness,  the  close  attendant  of 
pauperism. 

Delirium  tremens  is  not  the  worst  nor  is  it  the 
end  of  drunkenness,  which  weighs  down  humanity 
with  a  leaden  curse,  convulsing  it  through  genera- 
tions, until,  at  last,  the  spirit  in  man  succumbs  to 
the  demon,  and  every  trace  of  divine  intelligence 
and  power  has  been  crushed  out  in  the  long  and 
painful  struggle. 

Alcoholism  is  attended  by  great  weakness,  cramps, 
convulsions,  partial  paralysis,  horrid  pains,  sleepless 
nights,  restlessness,  delirium,  haggardness,  a  com- 
plete abolition  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  pow- 


428  The  Scourges  of  Huvianity. 

ers,  a  perfect  obliteration  of  the  will  and  excited  de- 
sires, which  make  the  drunkard  a  brute,  lost  in  in- 
difference to  all,  and  moving  like  an  automaton, 
without  motiv^e  or  end,  but  drink,  with  the  heart, 
lung  and  liver  suffering,  and  ending  in  marasmus, 
dropsy,  diarrhoea  or  delirium  tremens. 

Among  1,000  paralytic  insane,  studied  by  Morell, 
200  were  reduced  to  that  condition  by  hard  drinking, 
and  of  200  inebriates,  who  found  their  way  into  the 
insane  asylum,  35  were  obviously  hereditary  cases. 

Four  brothers  inherited  the  passion  for  drink,  in 
which  they  all  indulged  to  excess.  The  oldest 
drowned  himself,  the  second  hung  himself,  the 
third  cut  his  throat,  and  the  fourth  threw  himself 
out  of  an  upper  window.  And  there  is,  in  fact,  no 
end  to  the  sad  stories  of  whole  generations  of 
drunkards.  The  drinking  habit  of  the  parent  is  in 
most  cases  an  irresistible  impulse  or  disease  in  the 
child,  uncontrolled  by  any  motive  whatsoever.  Men 
are  treated  by  the  law  as  criminals,  when  they  are 
in  fact  maniacs. 

When  the  duty  on  spirits  was  removed  in  Nor- 
way in  1825,  between  that  time  and  1835  insanity 
increased  50  per  cent.,  but  the  increase  in  idiocy 
was  150  per  cent.  ! 

Out  of  300  idiots,  examined  by  Dr.  Howe  in  the 
State  of  Massachusetts,  145  were  the  children  of 
intemperate  parents. 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  429 

Sweden  consumes  25,000,000  gallons  of  spirits 
though  it  has  but  3,000,000  population— of  whom 
but  half  are  of  an  age  to  drink — and  the  conse- 
quence is  that  insanity,  suicide  and  crime  are  fear- 
fully common  among  them,  notwithstanding  every 
one  of  them  has  what  passes  commonly  for  an 
Education. 

In  two  hospitals  at  Copenhagen,  of  1,000  male 
patients  among  mechanics,  34,  and  among  day 
laborers,  80,  suffered  from  delirium  tremens ;  among 
the  first  class  61,  and  among  the  latter  104  cases  of 
deaths  were  the  result  of  liquor.  Of  100  deaths 
among  saloon  keepers  and  bar  tenders,  13.4  per 
cent,  are  caused  by  liquor. 

Neison,  the  great  English  statistician,  established 
from  extended  observations  made  on  6,111  drunk- 
ards, that  at  the  ages  of  21-30  the  mortality  among 
them  is  five  times,  and  at  30-50  four  times  as  high 
as  among  temperate  people;  and  while  of  6,111 
common  people,  100  should  have  died  at  all  ages 
'he  drunkards  lost  357. 

The  expectation  of  life  is  at 


With  drunk- 

IViiA  common 

ards. 

people. 

20  years 

of  age . 

.       .       15.5 

44-2 

30      " 

" 

.     .     13.8 

36.4 

40      " 

" 

.     .     II. 'S 

28.7 

50      " 

" 

.     .     10.8 

21.2 

60      " 

" 

.     .      8.9 

14.2 

430  TJie  Scourges  of  Humanity. 

While  at  20  years  of  age  a  common  man  has  an 
expectation  of  living  44  years,  a  drunkard  has  but 
an  expectation  of  15  years,  which  cuts  his  life  short 
35  years ! 

Drunkenness  is  the  bridging  over  from  pauper- 
ism to  insanity,  and  the  three  together  represent 
the  complete  destruction  of  humanity. 

The  statistics  of  England  are  noted  for  their  re- 
liability. The  following  table  will,  therefore,  show 
the  exact  increase  of  insanity  among  the  English 
poor.  The  population  of  England  and  Wales  was 
in  1 861,  20,061,725. 


Number  of  poor. 

Insane  poor. 

Per  cent 

1859  .  . 

867,543 

30.318 

3-50 

i860   .    . 

854,896 

31,543 

3-71 

I86I   .  . 

891,868 

32,920 

369 

1862   .   . 

946, 1 66 

34-271 

3.62 

1863  .  . 

1,142,624 

36.158 

317 

1864    .    . 

1,011,753 

37.576 

3-7 

1865   .   . 

974,772 

38.487 

4.0 

1866   .   . 

924,813 

39.827 

4-3 

1867   .   . 

963,200 

41.276 

4-3 

1868   .   . 

1,040,103 

43.158 

43 

1869    .    . 

1,046,569 

45.153 

4.3 

Whosoever  can  read  this  table  intelligently  and 
his  heart  does  not  ache  for  his  brother,  need  not  mis- 
take his  own  quality  any  more.  Let  him  set  down 
himself  for  all  future  a  heartless  villain.  45,153  in- 
sane among  1,046,569  paupers,  or  44  in  every  1,000, 
in  1869;  while  England  and  Wales  had  21,158  in- 


The  Scourges  of  Huuianity.  43 1 

sane  paupers,  or  23  in  every  1,000,  in  1852,  which 
gives  an  increase  of  91  per  cent,  of  these  unfortu- 
nates in  seventeen  years !  Think  for  a  moment, 
the  city  of  New  York  had  50,000  maniacs  and  the 
United  States  2,000,000 ;  well,  the  proportion  of 
the  insane  among  the  very  poor — we  may  call  them 
paupers,  they  are  men  and  our  brothers  still — is 
just  the  same.  Is  this  not  a  degenerating  human- 
ity? And  ought  Education  not  to  meet  it  with 
different  weapons  than  grammar,  spelling  and  geog- 
raphy ? 

A  State  Report  of  1855,  of  Massachusetts,  shows 
that  the  picture  is  as  dark  here  as  it  is  in  England, 
and  that  insanity  afflicts  the  poor  sixty-six  times 
as  much  as  the  independent  classes. 

What  we  have  said  sufficiently  establishes  that 
drunkenness  most  fearfully  deteriorates  the  race, 
and  should  be  met  by  Education,  which  must  look 
to  the  preservation  of  the  race.  But  the  subject  is 
too  important  to  be  dismissed  without  further 
remark. 

George  Combe  maintains  overwork  and  under- 
feeding to  be  among  the  chief  causes  which  induce 
the  craving  for  stimulus.  The  school,  therefore, 
by  spreading  technical  knowledge  must  relieve  the 
laborer  of  his  poorly-paying  drudgery,  which  means 
much  work  for  little  pay,  that  leads  him  to  the  gin 
shop. 


432  The  Scourges  of  Humanity. 

Prof.  Fawcett  traces  drunkenness  greatly  to  ex- 
cessive toil  and  ignorance.  The  toiling  masses  are 
reared  in  such  ignorance,  squalor  and  misery,  that 
life  to  them  is  dreary  and  nature  without  beauty, 
and  moral  beauty  exists  for  them  no  more  than 
the  beauty  of  the  physical  world,  for  society  and 
the  laws  of  government  oppress  them,  and  wife 
and  children  sadden  them  in  proportion  to  their 
love  for  them. 

Rev.  Alexander  Macloid  strenuously  insists,  that 
drunkenness  is  not  a  voluntary  evil.  The  polluted 
atmosphere  in  which  the  poor  live,  the  poor  dwell- 
ings, the  bad  food,  the  want  of  temperate  refresh- 
ments and  of  a  sensible  Education,  which  is  a  check 
on  low  desires,  are  all  causes  of  drunkenness.  The 
most  unwholesome  and  exhausting  trades,  as  the 
mining  and  iron  industries,  count  the  hardest 
drinkers. 

To  the  causes  of  drunkenness  already  stated,  we 
may  add  over-excitcmcnt  as  well  as  depression, 
chagrin  of  all  sorts,  anger,  etc.,  need  we  say,  hunger, 
cold,  hopelessness,  self-abandonment  and  shiftless- 
ness? 

In  many  trades  an  irritating  animal,  vegetable 
and  mineral  dust  produces  a  continual  dryness  and 
irritation  in  the  respiratory  organs  and  throat,  and, 
hence,  a  desire  for  drink. 

Want  of  employment   and  a  mind  not  finding 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  433 

sufficient  mental  excitement  in  its  occupation,  lead 
also  many  to  drunkenness. 

The  cultivation  of  higher  tastes  and  pleasures, 
delight  in  flowers,  music,  song,  paintings  and  gar- 
dening, science,  literature,  and  whatever  raises  the 
condition  and  dignity  of  workingmen,  will  remove 
them  above  the  low  and  degrading  vice  of  drunken- 
ness. An  Education  that  will  raise  the  work-people 
from  mere  routine  drudges  to  the  rank  of  thinking 
mechanics,  will  lift  them  above  all  temptation  of 
drunkenness,  for  as  skilled  artisans  they  will  cease 
to  be  poor,  to  want  food  for  the  body  or  food  for 
the  mind  ;  as  men  of  thought  they  will,  as  a  rule, 
be  neither  over-excited  nor  depressed,  as  thinking 
cultivates  equanimity ;  they  will  not  be  debarred 
from  the  higher  and  purer  delights  of  the  mind, 
and  if  they  enter  the  company  of  the  low  it  will 
not  be  to  fall  into  their  vices,  but  to  raise  them 
who  are  low  ;  careful  men  and  trained  in  the  scien- 
tific principles  of  their  trades,  they  will  soon  rid 
their  work  of  every  element  that  may  tempt  them 
to  drink. 

The  Westminster  Review  says :  "  While  men  are 
permitted  to  breathe  pestilential  air  all  their  life, 
how  can  we  expect  the  love  of  strong  drink  to 
perish?  Shorten  work,  or  the  drooping  frame  will 
infallibly  have  recourse  to  stimulants.  Give  the 
workingmen  libraries,  amusements,  lectures  and 
19 


434  T^^^f^  Scourges  of  Hiemanity. 

leisure  for  attendance ;  good  and  cheap  newspa- 
pers have  already  done  much  to  elevate  the  work- 
people, and  will  do  much  more ;  park  excursions, 
woods  and  fields,  sky  and  open  air,  all  elevate  and 
improve  man's  better  nature." 

Taine,  the  philosopher  and  historian,  says : 
*'  The  depression  of  the  workingman  and  his 
whole  condition  drive  him  to  the  cup  and  drunk- 
enness." 

The  workingman,  whose  wages  must  be  supple- 
mented by  those  of  his  wife  working  out  of  the 
house,  is  driven,  by  the  cheerless,  unprovided  dog- 
hole  of  a  home  he  enters  coming  from  his  day's 
labor,  to  the  more  inviting  public  house. 

The  squalor  of  the  poor  separates  them  like  a 
gulf  from  better  society ;  it  is  crushing  and  degrad- 
ing and  destroys  all  self-regard,  with  which  all  else 
is  lost. 

The  unceasing  toil  of  men,  women  and  children 
renders  all  culture  and  virtue  impossible  among 
the  poor. 

A  practical  school  that  uses  more  collections  of 
objects  of  nature,  art  and  industry  than  text  books, 
will  form  a  taste  for  zoological  gardens,  picture  gal- 
leries and  industrial  museums. 

Let  us  clean  out  our  own  hearts  and  join  the 
company  of  the  poor.  He  who  had  their  welfare 
at  heart  did  not  disdain  to  min<zle  with  u  inc  bib- 


The  Scourges  of  Ilwiianity.  435 

bers.  The  paying  out  of  wages  at  long  intervals 
gives  rise  to  sudden  excesses  and  long  depressions, 
which  both  favor  drunkenness. 

Misery  leads  to  drunkenness  and  is  intensified 
by  it.  Ireland  drinks  more  than  England,  because 
it  is  more  miserable. 

Many  laborers  suffering  ill  health  induced  by 
over-exertion  take  refuge  from  exhaustion  in  stimu- 
lants. Many  suffer  from  indigestion  brought  on  by 
protracted  in-door  labor,  and  the  appetite  failing 
early  in  the  morning  they  take  a  glass,  and  soon 
another  one,  and  so  on. 

The  London  T^zVwrj,  very  guarded  in  its  statements, 
says  :  "  Many  workmen  could  not  get  through  the 
work  by  which  they  gain  their  own  and  their  chil- 
dren's bread  without  liquor."  Of  course,  a  man 
ought  not  to  draw  to-day  upon  his  vital  powers 
of  to-morrow. 

The  same  great  journal  continues  in  the  same  ar- 
ticle :  "  That  to  many  of  the  poor  people,  living  in 
over-crowded,  ill-ventilated,  ill-lighted  rooms,  the 
public  house  is  the  onl}'  place  in  which  they  can 
enjoy  a  quiet  evening  in  pleasant  and  perhaps  in- 
structive intercourse  with  their  neighbors  after  a 
hard  day's  work,  cannot  be  denied." 

The  vice  of  drunkenness  was  a  hundred  years 
ago  universal  ;  with  wealth  the  well-to-do  classes 
gained  in  refinement ;  as  we  spread  by  our  human- 


436  The  Scourges  of  Humanity. 

ity  comfort  among  the  masses,  grace  will  also  adorn 
their  manners. 

Careful  statistics  prove  that  in  proportion  that  a 
more  thorough  Education  and  well-being  spread 
among  the  working-people  everywhere,  in  England, 
France,  Germany  and  among  us,  in  the  same  pro- 
portion is  drunkenness  lessened. 

The  vast  capital  that  is  wasted  in  poisonous 
liquors,  the  army  of  men  engaged  in  this  nefarious 
manufacture  and  trade,  the  pauperism  that  is  made 
and  intensified  by  it,  the  crimes  that  are  committed 
under  its  influence,  the  families  that  are  broken 
up  by  it,  the  brutality  that  is  nursed  by  it,  the 
idleness  and  loss  of  industry  and  the  consequent 
want  of  which  it  is  the  cause,  the  army  of  court  offi- 
cers, police,  jail  and  penitentiary  officials  it  makes 
necessary,  the  broken-hearted  widows  and  deserted 
orphans  it  fills  the  country  with,  the  prostitutes  it 
makes — all  this,  and  more  than  all  this,  the  low, 
vicious  state  in  which  we  all  more  or  loss  must 
sink  living  in  such  a  community,  render  it  difficult 
for  us  to  suppress  facts  and  thoughts  calculated  to 
throw  light  on  a  subject  exercising  the  hearts  and 
minds  of  the  good  men  and  women  of  this  land. 
But  our  space  commands  us  to  break  off — and  we 
can  only  appeal  to  teachers  to  believe  us  or  to 
consult  perplexed  boards  of  charities  and  correc- 
tion  and  burdened  tax  pa)'ers,  and   they  will   find 


The  Scourges  of  Hniuaiiity.  437 

that  pauperism,  drunkenness,  insanity  and  crime 
^re  not  accidents,  but  evils  of  a  steady  and  gigantic 
growth,  defying  all  palliatives,  and  threatening  the 
life  of  modern  communities,  which  Education  alone 
can  prevent  by  practical  training  and  measures  all 
taken  in  view  of  this  great  purpose  during  the 
long  years  of  the  formation  of  men  and  women 
at  school. 

John  Brown  consents  to  keep  John  Smith  at 
school  in  his  early  years  that  he  may  not  have  to 
keep  him  at  a  later  day  in  jail,  the  poor  house  or 
insane  asylum,  but  he  positively  refuses  to  pay  a 
hundred  dollars  school  tax,  and  deprive  himself 
of  so  much  comfort  that  John  Smith  may  learn 
the  name  of  every  river  in  Africa,  or  spell  at  school 
every  word  between  the  lids  of  Webster's  un- 
abridged quarto  dictionary. 

Educators,  whose  horizon  does  not  widen  be- 
yond declensions  and  conjugations,  have  long  since 
laid  aside  this  volume,  and  men  interested  in  the 
race  and  its  preservation  will  not  shrink  from  the 
study  of  evils,  which  no  amount  of  pruder)'  will 
wink  out  of  existence. 

The  virus  of  syphilis  spreads  noiselessly,  and  de- 
stroys the  race  in  its  very  germ,  poisoning  the 
blood,  disorganizing  nerve  and  bone,  and  inflicting 
scrofula,  phthisis,  insanity  and  many  other  forms  of 
disease   upon   the   innocent,  a  fearful   heritage  of 


438  The  Scourges  of  hfiiiiuvtity. 

shame  and  woe  that  fills  them  with  thoughts  of 
self-destruction. 

Neither  the  extent  nor  depth  of  this  evil  is  suffi- 
ciently understood.  Through  hereditary  transmis- 
sion syphilis  appears  after  one  or  two  generations 
as  scrofula,  which,  like  the  parent  evil,  attacks  the 
mucous  membranes,  the  flesh  and  the  bones,  is 
hereditary  and  amenable  to  the  same  treatment. 

It  is  equally  the  opinion  of  weighty  medical  au- 
thorities that  phthisis,  of  all  deadly  diseases  the 
most  common,  robbing  the  young  and  the  fair  so 
often  of  life  and  hope,  and  the  very  scourge  of 
mankind,  is,  to  a  great  extent,  the  taint  of  syph- 
ilis in  the  blood,  spread  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  when  the  licentiousness  of  princes  and 
prelates  had  reached  its  height,  and,  as  Buckle 
says,  from  the  Pope  in  the  Vatican  to  the  chamber- 
maid, this  terrible  malady  had  afflicted  all  classes. 

In  Rome,  we  are  informed  by  cotemporary  wri- 
ters, the  disease  broke  out  in  March,  1494,  and 
spread  before  the  year  1495  all  over  France,  Italy, 
Dalmatia,  all  the  parts  of  Macedonia  and  Greece, 
Germany,  Mecklenburg,  Westphalia,  upon  the  coasts 
of  the  Baltic  and  Roumania,  and  did  not  spend  its 
force  until  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  after 
every  twentieth  person  all  over  Europe  became  a 
victim  of  this  k)>ithsome  pest.  This  universal 
plague  was  followed   b)'  more   partial  ones   at   the 


The  Scourges  of  Hiimanity.  439 

end  of  the  eighteenth  century  in  all  parts  of  Nor- 
wegia,  where  it  was  brought  by  Russian  soldiers  ; 
in  Sweden,  where  Norwegian  soldiers  introduced 
it  ;  in  East  Gothland,  where  soldiers  coming  from 
Pomerania  brought  it  in  1762  ;  in  Norrtige,  brought 
by  soldiers  in  1790  ;  in  Courland,  introduced  in  1757 
by  the  soldiers  of  the  Seven  Years'  War ;  in  Lith- 
uania, brought  in  1800  by  the  Russian  soldiers.  In 
1760,  it  raged  on  the  banks  of  Lake  Huron,  and 
made  great  ravages  on  the  shores  of  St.  Paul's  Bay 
among  the  Ottawa  Indians.  In  1785,  5,800  were 
afflicted  with  this  poison  in  the  then  sparsely  popu- 
lated Canada.  It  ravaged  in  1791,  and  for  many 
years  in  Illyria,  and  as  late  as  1841  in  certain  locali- 
ties in  France.  In  Sv/eden  and  Norway  it  often 
commits  ravages ;  it  is  remarkably  frequent  and 
extended  in  England,  in  large  towns  or  where 
the  military  are  located,  who  make  more  havoc  at 
home  by  the  spread  of  this  most  loathsome  and 
deteriorating  disease,  than  they  ever  do  among  the 
enemy  with  cannon  or  bayonet.  Such  is  the  his- 
tory of  the  introduction  of  the  virus  of  syphilis 
into  the  blood  of  the  living  generation,  and  which 
enforces  upon  us  its  tribute  paid  by  scrofula,  which 
appears  in  a  variety  of  skin  and  other  diseases,  in 
the  different  forms  of  defectiveness,  and,  above  all,  as 
phthisis,  in  which  form  it  makes  the  greatest  rav- 
ages ;  it  certainly  is  of  all  the  deteriorating  agents 


440  ^1^^  Scourges  of  Hunianify. 

the  most  fearful,  and  demands  the  attention  of 
every  friend  of  humanity. 

The  virus  of  syphilis  in  the  blood  does  not  only, 
as  Dr.  Sanger  says,  entail  upon  children  a  mental 
and  physical  unfitness  for  action  in  the  active  pur- 
suits of  life,  but  feeds  low  desires,  stimulates  the 
appetite  for  strong  drink,  produces  a  cynical  state 
of  mind  and  an  obliquity  in  the  mental  and  moral 
nature  of  man,  which  renders  him  mendacious,  hypo- 
critical, cunning  and  selfish,  poisoning  Church  and 
state,  and  answering  for  much  that  is  reprehensible 
in  both. 

The  insidious  nature  of  this  fearful  poison  calls 
for  exact  information  based  upon  statistics  which 
cannot  be  questioned. 

From  1804  to  1842,  129,809  venereal  patients 
have  been  treated  in  the  hospitals  of  Paris,  the 
number  increasing  with  every  year,  so  that  while  it 
was  2,212  in  1804,  it  was  5,059  in  1842,  and  to  this 
day  this  number  must  have  more  than  quadrupled. 
What  a  deterioration  of  the  nervous  system,  epi- 
lepsy, insanity  and  suicides  such  an  amount  of 
syphilis  must  produce  ! 

The  Report  of  Guy's  Hospital  in  London  states 
43  per  cent,  of  all  external  diseases  treated  there  are 
venereal.  Mr.  Caspar  Foster  states  174  cases  of  285 
in  surgery,  in  1867,  were  venereal  cases.  The  Royal 
Free  Hospital   in   London   has  daily  117  new  con- 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  441 

sultations  in  venereal  cases,  or  3  in  every  8  cases 
of  a  surgical  nature.  At  the  hospitals  of  King's 
and  University  Colleges,  St.  Mary's,  Westminster, 
London,  Middlesex  and  Metropolitan  Hospitals, 
one-third  of  the  surgical  cases  are  venereal.  In 
the  hospitals  for  the  sailors,  50  cases  are  daily 
brought  in.  In  the  Eye  Hospital  for  Children  one- 
fifth  of  the  cases  are  syphilitic.  Dr.  William  Remond 
states  that  in  the  Children's  Hospital  93  boys  and 
105  girls,  or  i  in  every  5  children,  were  affected  with 
syphilis.  In  hospitals  for  skin  diseases  one-eighth 
to  four-fifths  of  the  cases  are  syphilitic  eruptions. 

From  1844  to  185 1  the  British  army,  numbering 
44,611  men,  had  annually  8,032,  and  the  navy  dur- 
ing the  same  years  annually  of  28,800  men,  2,880 
venereal  cases.  From  1859  ^^  i860,  of  1,000  sol- 
diers in  London,  422  were  treated  in  the  hospitals 
for  venereal  affections. 

Recruits  examined  for  the  service  in  1853  showed 
250  in  1,000  the  symptoms  of  syphilis.  In  i860, 
the  British  army  numbered  306  cases  of  syphilis  in 
every  1,000  men,  and  each  man  averaged  8.69  days 
yearly  loss  in  the  hospital. 

At  Vienna  were  treated  in  the  hospital  in 

Men.        Women.       Girls.     Children.      Total. 
i860      .      .      .      3.550  62  1,440  I  5,463 

1861  .  .  3,375    73    1.753    5    5.206 

1862  .  .  .  4,000   'j'j        2,019    5    6.901 

1863  .  .  .  5.808    90    2.224    6    8,128 


19* 


442  The  Scourges  of  Huiiiaiiity, 

Under  private  treatment  there  must  have  been 
three  or  four  times  as  many. 

Among  42,000  artisans  in  Berlin  in  1856  and 
31,000  sick  at  the  hospital,  were  1,800  cases  of 
venereal,  or  4.3  per  cent,  of  the  artizan  population, 
and  6  per  cent,  of  the  hospital  cases. 

Syphilitic  cases  under  hospital  treatment  have 
doubled  in  little  Bavaria,  as  everywhere  else.  In 
the  hospitals  there  were  in  1859,  974  cases  ;  1861, 
1,321  cases;   1865,  1,834  cases. 

At  the  end  of  the  last  century  the  inhabitants 
of  several  districts  in  Denmark  were  obliged  to 
submit  to  an  official  medical  examination  on  ac- 
count of  the  frequency  of  syphilis  among  the 
people. 

Syphilitic  children  die  mostly  in  their  first  in- 
fancy; still,  in  the  hospital  of  Bordeaux,  1 856-1 861, 
yy  children  among  2,719,  or  about  3  per  cent.,  show 
plainly  symptoms  of  syphilis,  and  66  of  this  num- 
ber died  before  their  sixth  year. 

The  following  facts,  gathered  from  the  work  of 
Dr.  Sanger,  show  the  increase  of  venereal  poison 
in  New  York  City.  Blackwell's  Island  Hospital 
treated  in 

1854 1,541  venereal  cases. 

1855 1.549 

1856 1,639 

1857 2,090  " 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  443 

The  following  table  contains  the  venereal  cases 
in  the  various  public  institutions  of  the  metropolis 
in  the  year  1857  : 

Penitentiary  Hospita ,  Blackwell's  Island  .     .  2,090 

Almshouse,  Blackwell's  Island 52 

Work-house          "                "          56 

Penitentiary          "                "          430 

Bellevue  Hospital 768 

Nursery  Hospital,  Randall's  Island    ....  734 
New  York  State  Emigrants'  Hospital,  Ward's 

Island 559 

New  York  Hospital,  Broadway 405 

New  York  Dispensary,  Centre  Street     .     .     .  1,580 

Northern              "           Waverley  Place      .     .  327 

Eastern                 "           Ludlow  Street  ,     .     .  630 

Demilt                  "           Second  Avenue      .     .  803 

Northwestern       "           Eighth         "           .     .  344 

Medical  Colleges 207 

King's  County  Hospital,  Flatbush,  L.  I.     .     .  311 

Brooklyn  City  Hospital,  Brooklyn,  L.  I.      .     .  186 

Seaman's  Retreat,  Staten  Island 365 

Total 9,847 

Cases  in  these  Institutions  unrecorded  .     .     ,     4,923 

Total 14.770 

Add  to  these  hospi  al  cases  the  number  of  per- 
sons treated  all  over  the  city,  privately,  which  must 
be  at  least  three  and  four  times  as  many,  and  we 
may  form  a  somewhat  correct  idea  of  the  deterio- 
ration of  the  race  from  syphilis.  This  estimate  may 
appear  high,  but  as  we  have  for  every  5  per  cent, 
adult  males  one  prostitute  spreading  the  virus  of 
syphilis,  the  result  can  surprise  no  one. 


444  The  Scourges  of  Humanity. 

What  a  fearful  amount  of  deterioration  of  the 
physical  and  moral  nature  of  man  must  this  poison 
effect !  More  than  half  of  the  seamen  are  its  vic- 
tims, lOO  to  200  in  ev^ery  i,ooo  soldiers  suffer  from 
it,  25  to  30  per  cent,  of  all  the  sick  in  military  hos- 
pitals are  affected  with  it,  5  per  cent,  of  the  patients 
in  all  hospitals  are  sick  with  it,  4  per  cent,  of  the 
poor  and  2  per  cent,  of  the  entire  population  of 
large  cities  are  tainted  with  it,  i  to  2  per  cent,  of 
innocent  infants  perish  from  it,  and  many  more 
transmit  it  to  coming  generations  as  a  fatal  potency 
cropping  out  in  deteriorating  diseases  without 
number. 

It  is  the  milliners,  seamstresses,  tailoresses,  dress- 
makers and  the  like  low-payed  occupations,  which 
force  women  into  the  path  of  vice.  But  one  in 
five  hundred  cases  was  found  by  Dr.  Sanger,  in 
which  a  woman  in  the  better  remunerated  trades 
followed  this  low  life.  "  Working  from  early  dawn 
till  late  at  night,  with  trembling  fingers,  aching  head 
and  very  often  with  an  empty  stomach,  the  poor 
seamstress  ruins  her  health  to  obtain  a  spare  and 
insufficient  living." 

Among  1,224  of  these  miserable  creatures  the 
earnings  of  their  honest  trades  yielded  Ihcm  per 
week  in 

127  cases $4  00 

230     "        3  00 


The  Scourges  of  Hwiianity.  445 

336  cases $2  00 

534     "         I  00 

Whatever  fosters  prostitution  by  interfering  with 
woman's  making  an  honest  livelihood,  or  encourages 
concubinage  by  rendering  the  maintenance  of  a 
family  by  the  masses  of  the  people  impossible,  or 
undermines  the  family  by  false  teachings,  is  the  in- 
direct means  of  spreading  syphilis,  the  fell-destroyer 
of  the  race,  who,  unchecked,  would  exterminate  it 
in  the  course  of  not  many  generations. 

Let  the  school  see  to  it,  that  woman  on  leaving 
it  may  be  trained  for  maintaining  herself  honestly, 
and  that  man  may  be  enabled  to  support  a  family 
with  his  labor,  rendered  effective  by  a  practical  and 
scientific  Education. 

We  must  banish,  says  a  great  sanitary  authority, 
misery,  educate  men  correctly,  fill  them  with  higher 
interests,  make  sanitary  care  a  religion,  put  life 
under  the  authority  of  correct  morals  and  a  com- 
prehensive hygienic  legislation,  restrain  selfishness, 
and  fill  all  with  a  spirit  of  love  and  mercy  by  a  re- 
generated civil  and  penal  code.  Nothing  so  much 
as  purity  of  morals  and  cleanliness  oppose  the 
genesis  and  spread  of  syphilis,  but  want  and  misery 
are  hardly  compatible  with  cleanliness  and  purity. 

Let  woman  be  trusted  with  the  holy  office  of 
training  and  educating  the  race  in  the  national 
nurseries  of  the  land,  and  she  will  cease  to  lead  the 


44^  TJie  ScoKrgiS  of  Hiimainiy. 

fashion  and  induce  extravagance ;  a  m  m  will  then 
be  able  to  support  a  family  on  a  modest  income, 
and  prostitution  will  consequently  become  excep- 
tional. Woman  in  her  elevation  will  disdain  to 
subserve  to  the  pleasure  of  man  or  to  live  for  her 
own  vanity  sake ;  her  labors  for  the  race  will  spread 
a  noble  spirit,  and  want  will  bring  her  no  more  to 
that  lowest  depth  of  infamy  which  disgraces  to-day 
man  more  than  her  and  most  of  all  our  Education, 
which  makes  us  all  what  we  are.  The  school  is  re- 
sponsible for  the  prostitution  it  does  not  prevent, 
and  the  pest  it  does  not  arrest  it  spreads. 

Our  schools  teach  us  many  fine  things,  but  leave 
such  matters  to  jails  and  houses  of  correction,  which 
in  their  turn  deem  it  labor  lost  to  attend  to  a  field 
overgrown  with  weeds. 

Shall  we,  then,  correct  this  race-deteriorating 
evil  by  Race  Education,  which  strengthens  our 
hands  and  gives  them  cunning  and  inspires  our 
heart  to  work  for  the  race  and  its  preservation,  or 
shall  we  make  a  yearly  contribution  of  70,000  to 
100,000  illegitimate  births  and  half  as  many  in- 
fantile deaths,  and  the  day  of  judgment  may 
reveal  how  many  infanticides  registered  "  still 
births  "  ? 

According  to  exact  statistics  700,000  illegitimate 
children  are  annually  born  in  Christian  Europe,  or 
one  illegitimate  child  to  every  13.5  legitimate.     In 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  447 

some  of  the  large  cities  every  second  or  third  man 
is  a  bastard. 

In  France  the  number  of  illegitimate   children 

vere  in 

1844 73.950 

1849 75.395 

1857 76,189 

Marbeau,  in  the  Stance  of  the  Academy  of  Moral 
Sciences,  gave  the  following  interesting  social  fig- 
ures, expressive  of  the  moral  condition  of  France  : 

76,189  illegitimate  children. 
35,000  abortions. 
34,000  abandoned  children. 
30,000  still  births. 
168  infanticides. 

The  Medical  Chiriirgical  Review  calculates  that 
at  the  very  least,  a  million  and  a  half  of  persons  are 
yearly  infected  in  Great  Britain  with  this  most  terri- 
ble poison.  How  enormous,  then,  must  be  the  num- 
ber of  children  born  with  secondary  syphilis !  how 
immense  the  mortality  among  them  !  and  how  vast 
the  amount  of  disease  and  misery  transmitted  to 
coming  generations !  It  is  this  that  fills  our 
hospitals,  insane  asylums,  asylums  for  the  blind, 
the  deaf  and  dumb,  our  poor-houses,  jails  and  many 
an  early  grave. 

And  here,  then,  again  the  question  urges  itself 
upon  our  mind,  can  Education  engage  in  a  more 
important  work  than  arresting  this  as  well  as  other 


448  Tlie  Scourges  of  Humanity. 

pests  which  deteriorate  the  race  and  dwarf  the  pro- 
portions of  man? 

Standing  armies,  these  ulcers  of  modern  states, 
the  graves  of  liberty,  consuming  the  earnings  of 
the  nations  and  heaping  up  monstrous  public  debts, 
causing  rates  of  taxation  that  bear  heavily  on  all 
enterprise,  these  evils  require  volumes  to  be  shown 
up  in  all  their  bearings,  but  cannot  be  left  unmen- 
tioned  where  the  scourges  of  humanity  are  num- 
bered. They  are  sources  of  death  and  destruction 
in  times  of  profoundest  peace  as  well  as  in  times  of 
war,  as  we  have  shown  by  their  rates  of  mortality 
and  suicide  and  the  propagation  of  the  most  loath- 
some and  deteriorating  disease  among  the  nations. 
They  are  a  public  sanction  of  murder  and  robbery, 
and  are  a  standing  challenge  to  God  and  humanity. 

Our  prisons  arc  another  public  scourge  and  a 
hotbed  of  human  deterioration ;  and  what  else  but 
our  schools  can  wc  blame  for  the  state  the  criminal 
is  in,  or  for  the  worse  laws  and  officials,  who  in  the 
name  of  justice  perpetrate  the  greatest  injustice, 
malice  and  revenge,  and  render  men's  lives  cheaper 
by  their  dealings  than  the  criminal  ever  did  in  his 
lawlessness,  creating  nests  breeding  vice  and  crime 
of  the  deepest  dye,  which  like  a  torrent  sweep  de- 
structively over  the  land  they  were  to  protect,  by 
reforming  or  making  innocuous  dangerous  men. 

The  trades  and   pursuits  of  artisans  which   are 


The  Sconrges  of  Humanity.  449 

sources  of  pleasure,  delight  and  comfort  to  all  are 
under  our  present  system  of  Education  scourges  to 
the  men,  women  and  children  who  actively  engage 
in  them.  A  description  of  the  deterioration  of  the 
masses,  arising  from  the  numerous  trade  diseases, 
would  swell  our  volume  beyond  proportion;  we 
can  but  hint  at  the  skeleton,  but  dare  not  enter 
the  charnel  house. 

An  observing  employer  remarked:  "The  men 
drop  off  from  work  unperceived  and  disregarded. 
I  am  quite  at  a  loss  to  know  what  becomes 
of  them.  When  they  leave  off  working,  they  go, 
and  are  seen  no  more.  Some,  perhaps,  become 
applicants  for  charities  ;  but  so  few  have  I  known 
of  the  ages  of  sixty  or  seventy,  that  leaving  work, 
they  seem  to  leave  the  world  as  well,  a  solitary 
one  appearing  at  intervals  to  claim  some  trifling 
pension  or  seek  admission  to  the  almshouse."  This 
is  as  melancholy  as  correct  a  representation  of  the 
end  of  the  artisan,  still  let  our  end  be  like  his, 
rather,  than  to  be  among  those  who  can  read  such 
a  summing  up  of  a  hard  workingman's  days  with- 
out a  deep  pity  stirring  in  their  heart  for  poor  hu- 
manity. 

Man  after  man  dies  of  decay  in  the  prime  of  life 
and  no  warning  is  taken  by  the  survivors.  Men 
are  generally  unwilling  to  admit  the  fact  of  the 
excessive  mortality  of  their  trade.  They  will  hardly 


450  TJie  Scourges  of  HiiDianity. 

admit  that  they  labor  under  a  disorder  until  con- 
sumption is  established,  and  its  effects  apparent  to 
every  observer.  To  the  physician's  inquiry  all  the 
workers  in  dusty  trades  will  say,  "  We  are  all  pretty 
healthy,"  and  it  is  only  by  examining  each  work- 
man that  the  physician  finds  the  deception. 

Here  is  the  description  of  an  eminent  physician  of 
the  operatives  of  a  cotton  factory:  "The  children 
were  almost,  universally  ill-looking,  small,  sickly, 
etc.  The  men  were  almost  as  pallid  and  thin  as 
the  children.  Among  the  women  there  was  not  a 
fresh  or  fine-looking  individual.  What  a  degene- 
rate race,  human  beings  stunted,  enfeebled  and  de- 
praved, men  and  women  that  were  never  to  become 
aged,  and  children  that  w^ere  never  to  become 
healthy  adults.     It  was  a  mournful  spectacle." 

The  cotton  dust  or  fibre  tells  on  the  lungs ;  the 
operative  may  continue  at  his  work,  but  ails  occa- 
sionally without  being  exactly  ill ;  he  has  an  occa- 
sional attack  of  sickness  of  his  respiratory  organs ; 
he  is  weak  and  easily  a  prey  to  disease ;  may  live 
on,  neither  well  nor  ill ;  is  woni  out  at  an  early 
period,  and  sinks  an  old  man  at  the  age  of  45  to 
50.  In  a  cotton  establishment  of  1,685  spinners 
only  22  passed  the  age  of  50,  and  8  the  age  of  55  ! 

The  same  authority  inspecting  a  flax  mill,  de- 
clares, that  of  a  personnel  of  1,079,  22  reached  40 
years,  and  but  9  lived  to  the  age  of  50  years. 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  451 

Fourteen  men,  taken  indiscriminately  from  the 
flax  mill,  showed  on  examination  great  impairment 
of  the  respiratory  organs.  Drawn  up  in  line,  what 
a  sight !  pale,  spare,  emaciated,  head  declined,  pulse 
feeble,  subjects  of  disease  advanced  to  a  fatal  issue, 
ripe  for  the  hospital,  working  till  they  die  from 
consumption ! 

Hatters,  rather  pale,  complain  of  pains  in  the 
chest,  are  subject  to  asthma,  and  there  are  scarcely 
any  old  men  among  them. 

Millers  are  generally  pale  and  sickly,  and  often 
asthmatic  at  an  early  age. 

Jewellers  suffer  in  their  chest,  stomach,  liver  and 
head.  An  old  jeweller  is  hardly  to  be  found.  In  an 
establishment  of  37  men,  one  had  passed  the  age 
of  50. 

Brass  founders  suffer  in  their  respiration,  cough, 
have  often  pains  in  the  stomach  and  are  subject  to 
morning  vomiting.    Few  of  them  live  to  be  old  men. 

Masons  have  the  bronchital  membrane  often  in 
a  state  of  inflammation  from  the  stone  dust,  die 
frequently  of  consumption,  and  hardly  ever  live  to 
old  age. 

We  might  take  up  trade  after  trade  and  would 
find  each,  as  carried  on  to-day,  the  destruction  of 
the  artisan  engaged  in  it.  But  as  the  subject  is 
almost  endless,  we  must  take  a  larger  sweep. 

Arsenic,  as  arsenite  of  copperas  or  emerald  green. 


452  The  Scourges  of  Humanity. 

is  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  paper  hangings, 
tinted  paper,  artificial  flowers  ;  but  it  enters  also 
into  the  manufacture  of  other  pigments — in  print- 
ing calico,  in  the  manufacture  of  glass,  rat  poison- 
ing paste,  not  to  speak  of  arsenic  ores.  Ten  thou- 
sand hands  in  this  country  are  engaged  in  these 
trades,  and  Dr.  Guy,  in  his  able  report,  states 
that  out  of  25  persons  he  examined  in  the  artifi- 
cial flower  trade,  1 1  were  considerably  affected  by 
this  virulent  poison,  22  were  affected  with  a  peculiar 
rash,  sickness  in  the  morning,  weakness,  feverish- 
ness,  dimness  of  the  eyes,  drowsiness,  trembling 
and  convulsions.  Dr.  Guy  gives  a  striking  picture 
of  the  development  of  the  miserable  sickness  until 
death  steps  in,  and  the  post-mortem  examination 
reveals  fearful  lesions  in  the  mucous  membrane 
of  the  stomach  and  in  the  liver.  This  is  a  sad 
end  which  is  often  quickly  reached,  but  the  worst 
is  the  steady  deteriorating  effect  this  virulent  poi- 
son has  on  ten  thousands  engaged  in  these  trades 
— but  we  must  hurry  on  to  still  blacker  trades. 

Phosphorus,  eating  out  the  jawbones,  makes  of 
men  engaged  in  manufactures  using  it  such  pitiful 
looking  subjects,  that  we  best  turn  from  the  sight. 

More  than  forty  thousand  artisans  are  exposed 
in  the  United  States  to  the  deteriorating  effects  of 
lead,  a  metal  most  inimical  to  the  system,  caus- 
ing the  dropt  hand,  and  other  serious  symptoms, 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  453 

among  which  is  the  painter's  colic,  often  stubborn 
and  convulsing  the  patient  with  the  most  excru- 
ciating pains  ever  suffered  by  man.  Smelteis, 
whitelead  manufacturers,  potters,  painters,  type 
founders,  plumbers  and  many  engaged  in  other 
trades,  are  deteriorated  by  constant  contact  with 
this  metallic  poison,  which  especially  affects  the 
nerves  and  the  brain  it  paralyzes,  and,  like  alcohol, 
is  sure  to  tell  on  future  generations. 

Quicksilver  is  used  in  many  trades,  and  is  most 
fearful  in  its  effects  upon  the  system,  and  but  fevi 
coming  in  daily  contact  with  it  escape  chronic  poi- 
soning. The  mucous  membrane,  especially  of  the 
gums,  gets  livid  ;  the  breath,  as  salivation  advances, 
becomes  more  fetid,  the  pulse  and  respiration  are 
retarded,  and  digestion  becomes  irregular.  As  the 
mucous  membrane  is  destroyed  and  the  teeth  fall 
out,  the  patient  is  disfigured.  Mercurial  tremor 
comes  on,  the  joints  pain,  trembling  increases, 
arms,  legs,  the  tongue,  and,  finally,  the  facial  mus- 
cles, refuse  service,  and  the  man  is  but  a  grimace 
and  a  mockery  of  himself,  a  pitiful  sight,  helpless 
misery — he  cannot  chew  his  own  food.  Paralysis 
takes  from  the  man  the  use  of  one  limb  after  an- 
other. The  teeth  have  gone  long  ago,  hair  and 
nails  follow  them  ;  the  man  is  all  wounds,  old  ones 
opening,  all  bleeding  profusely,  and  the  poor  in- 
valid perishes  under  hectic  developments  a  picture 


454  The  Scourges  of  Humanity. 

of  the  most  horrid  misery.  And  the  worst  feature 
about  all  this  is,  that  it  is  but  the  delineation  of 
the  sufferings  and  unspeakable  misery  befalling 
men  and  women  in  the  prime  of  life  in  the  dis- 
eases of  many  other  trades. 

According  to  the  latest  observations  of  Hirsch,  the 
average  amount  of  phthisis  was  among  the  sick  of 
21  trades  without  dust li.i  per  cent. 


with  vegetable  dust    .     . 

.     13-3 

"     animal  dust    .     .     . 

.      20.8 

"     mixed  dust     .     .     . 

.      22.6 

"     mineral  dust    . 

•     25 

''     metal  dust     .     .     . 

.     28 

Dr.  Holland  reports  12  needle-grinders  began  to 
work  at  their  trade  between  their  14th  and  27th 
years,  and  died  between  their  27th  and  42d  years — 
the  12  men  together  had  an  average  life  of  30  years 
and  8  months.  Of  102  scissor-grinders  60  died  under 
40  years.  The  fork-grinders  die  before  their  35th 
year,  the  razor-grinders  between  40  and  50.  Among 
100  sick  file-cutters  62.2  per  cent,  are  phthisical, 
17.4  suffer  from  chronic  bronchitis  and  17.6  from 
pneumonia.  Of  1,000  glass-makers.  Dr.  Hanover 
found  349  at  the  hospital.  Such  is  the  state  of 
health  among  them. 

In  Coster's  factory,  in  Amsterdam,  among  the 
diamond  setters, 

23  per  cent,  suffered  from  bleeding  from  the  nose. 
36  "  "  "     asthma. 


TJie  Scourges  of  HiDuanity. 


455 


57  per  cent,  suffered  from  heart  troubles  and  giddiness. 
73.5       "       of  the  men  were  pale  and  haggard. 

Lead  intoxication  is  common  among  the  men  ; 
among  90  men  subjected  to  medical  examination, 
30  showed  symptoms  of  poisoning.  These  dia- 
mond workers  are  almost  all  sickly  men,  ailing  with 
pulmonary  complaints — 9  of  them  were  advanced 
consumptives. 

Among  the  diamond  grinders  in  the  same  factory, 

8  per  cent,  suffered  from  heart  complaints. 
33.75 "  "  "     headache. 

40       "  "  "     asthma. 

52       "  were  thin  and  pale. 

67       "  suffered  from  bleeding  from  the  nose. 

The  average  life  of  the  diamond-polishers  was,  in 
the  same  factory,  33.5  years,  and  of  the  diamond- 
setters  26.5  years ! 

The  Report  of  Registration  of  the  State  of  Mas- 
sachusetts shows  that  the  average  lives  of  the  fol- 
lowing trades  and  professions  have  been  in  the  last 
thirty  years  as  stated  : 


Farmers     . 

Millers  .     . 

Sawyers 

Physicians . 

Hatters 

Clock  &  Watch-makers 

Carpenters  and  Joiners 

Blacksmiths    .... 

Sail-makers     .     .     .     . 

Wood-turners     .     .     . 


65.19  Comb-makers 
57.43  Masons .  .  . 
56.67  Butchers  .  . 
55.08  Tanners  .  . 
54.55  Cabinet-makers 
54.43    Gunsmiths 

Carriage-makers 
Harness-makers 
52.84   Brick-makers 
52.5;    Wool-sorters  . 


53-31 
53-31 


51.38 
50.48 
50.29 
50.05 
48.65 

48.57 
48.38 
48.36 
47-99 
47-55 


456 


The  Scojirges  of  Humanity. 


Leather-dressers 
Laborers    .... 
Musical  Instrument  ma^ 

kers .       ... 
Tailors  .... 
Architects .... 
Bakers  .     .    .    .     , 
Dress-makers  (women 
Seamen      .... 
Stone-cutters  .     .     . 
Coppersmiths      .     . 
Silver  and  Goldsmiths 

Dyers 

Mechanics  .  .  . 
Painters  .... 
Weavers    .... 

Artists 

Shoe-makers  .  .  . 
Brush-makers  .  . 
Furnace  Men  .  . 
Founders  .... 
Shoe-cutters  .  .  . 
Pianoforte-makers  . 
Glass-cutters  .  .  . 
Civil  Engineers  .     . 


47.41  Chair-makers .     .     . 

47.39  Engineers  .... 
Musicians  .     .     •     . 

47.32  Tinsmiths  .... 
47.19  Expressmen  .  .  . 
47.15  Nail-makers  .  .  . 
46.76  Machinists      .     .     . 

46.49  Jewelers     .... 

46.33  Servants  (women)  . 
46.30  Teamsters  .  .  . 
46.07  Book-binders .  ,  . 
45.46  Upholsterers  ... 
45.35  Barbers  .... 
45.13  Pail  and  Tub-makers 
45.05  Cutlers  .... 
44.65  Operatives  .  .  . 
44.56  Printers  .... 
44.45  Cigar-makers      .     . 

43.40  Engineers  and  Firemen 

43.05  Drivers 

42.73  Milliners     .... 

42.62  Glass-blowers     .     . 

42.50  Plumbers  .... 
42.39  Carvers      .... 

42.34  Operatives  (women) 


41.59 
41.57 
41.19 
40.96 
40.94 
40.80 
40.80 
40.29 
40.19 
40.13 
39-94 
3978 
39-77 
39-50 
39-23 
38.92 

38.57 

38.31 
38.21 
38.16 

37.30 
37.81 
35-43 
33-84 
27.98 


How  important  these  figures  !  What  losses  to 
the  nation  and  to  their  own  families  these  short 
lives  of  the  workmen  of  the  land  indicate  !  While 
farmers  average  65  years,  workmen  die  in  some 
trades  at  35,  in  others  at  38,  45,  and  hardly  in  ajiy 
do  they  live  to  55  years.  It  is  time  the  public  real- 
ize the  ravages  made  among  the  most  productive 
classes  by  the  great  scourge  of  preventable  trade 
diseases,  and  stop  the  social  slaughter  that  com- 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  457 

promises  the  strength  of  the  nation  and  its  moral 
soundness  for  the  sake  of  a  few  silverhngs  in  hand. 
Lombard  has  more  than  forty  years  ago  directed 
attention  to  these  statistics,  which  ought  not  to 
be  taken  as  fixed  quantities,  but  should  lead  us  to 
the  removal  of  their  causes.  They  are  not  the  re- 
sults of  unalterable  conditions.  The  injurious  ele- 
ments of  the  trades  can  in  most  cases  be  elimi- 
nated, and  in  others  rendered  innoxious  by  shorter 
hours,  a  more  hygienic  life  of  the  workmen,  and 
the  choice  of  a  trade  suited  in  every  case  to  the 
peculiar  organic  condition  and  degree  of  health  and 
strength  of  the  individual.  But  only  a  close  union 
between  the  school  and  the  factory  enables  the 
workman  to  realize  the  inappreciable  but  constant 
action  of  these  injurious  elements,  and  gives  him  the 
power  to  eliminate  them  from  the  trades.  A  more 
substantial  and  hygienic  living,  which  increases 
the  power  of  resistance,  is  expensive,  and  is  only 
within  reach  of  a  laborer  well-schooled  and  scien- 
tifically trained  in  his  trade,  whose  work  is  highly 
productive  ;  and,  as  for  shorter  hours,  they,  too,  are 
only  practicable  with  men,  whose  labor  is  highly 
productive  and  whose  minds  are  stored  with  valu- 
able practical  knowledge,  which  will  occupy  them 
during  the  cessation  of  active  employment  ;  else 
their  short  hours  prove  detrimental  to  them  in 
more  than  one  way. 


458  The  Scourges  of  Humanity. 

The  geat  trouble  is,  the  Education  of  to-day  is 
not  suited  for  the  working  masses.  When  the 
school  gave  only  a  clerical  Education,  only  the 
clergy  availed  themselves  of  it ;  to-day,  when  it 
gives  mostly  a  commercial  and  polished. Education, 
merchants  and  people  of  leisure  alone  care  for  it. 

Give  us  an  Education  profitable  for  the  masses 
of  the  people,  and  they  will  be  sure  to  avail  them- 
selves of  it. 

Bring  the  school  to  bear  upon  the  factory,  and 
we  shall  increase  the  productive  years  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  at  least  20  per  cent.  What 
gain  to  the  nation  and  to  themselves !  A  longer 
life  means  more  health,  more  strength,  more  energy, 
more  thought,  more  virtue,  more  manhood,  more 
labor,  more  wealth,  more  comfort,  more  culture, 
and  more  everything  desirable  in  the  family  as  well 
as  in  the  state.  A  longer  life  means  less  sickness, 
less  loss  of  time,  less  expense,  less  poverty,  less 
orphans,  less  vagabondage,  less  crime,  less  police 
and  jails,  and  less  taxation  and  public  burdens, 
and,  hence,  more  general  prosperity. 

The  employment  of  children  in  factories  is  one 
of  the  great  scourges  of  modern  times  ;  we  can 
only  mention  this  plague  without  unburdening 
our  mind.  Four  out  of  five  children  who  are 
from  early  infancy  up  working  in  factories,  die 
before  they  reach  the  age  of  twenty. 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  459 

The  majority  of  children  of  factory  people  were 
found,  by  actual  count,  at  schools  attended  by  this 
class  to  be  orphans,  and  by  the  show  of  the  mor- 
tuary register  of  fifty-two  deceased,  forty-one  only 
had  attained  the  age  of  twenty-five. 

These  short  lives  mean  volumes  of  misery  to  the 
laborer  as  well  as  to  his  family ;  they  mean  much 
sickness,  loss  of  earnings,  expense,  impoverishment, 
pauperism  and  crime,  and  deserted  orphans  and 
sorrowing  widowhood ;  they  mean  national  loss 
and  bankruptcy ;  yea,  they  mean  injustice  in  a 
nation  who  is  indifferent  to  such  misery,  and  end 
in  universal  selfishness  and  dishonesty,  and  the 
consequent  ruin  of  the  country. 

But  the  facts  we  have  adduced  speak  for  them- 
selves, and  the  reader  can  make  his  own  comments. 
To  do  justice  to  the  subject  of  race  deterioration 
as  resulting  from  the  innumerable  diseases  which 
haunt  the  laborer  to-day,  space  fails  us.  That  this 
deterioration  is  inevitable,  we  emphatically  deny. 
Unite  the  factory  and  the  school,  labor  and  science, 
the  worker  and  the  thinker,  and  the  laws  of  the 
intellectual  order  of  the  universe  will  impress  them- 
selves upon  labor  and  its  relations,  and  every  dis- 
sonance will  disappear  between  the  worker  and  his 
work  and  between  labor  and  capital ;  every  force 
will  become  a  willing  tool  of  man,  and  all  matter 
will   become    pregnant  with   use  and   beauty,  and 


460  The  Scourges  of  Humanity. 

man  will  be  healthier,  stronger  and  wiser,   every 

one   standing   back   to  back   to  his  brother,  and 

rendering  one  another  every  help  their  situation 
may  require. 

OUR  RESOURCES  AND  OUR  GREED. 

The  revolution  which  gave  birth  to  the  nation, 
having  lasted  full  seven  years,  thoroughly  aroused 
the  people's  energies,  employed  since  in  exploring 
resources  which  have  grown  with  the  population, 
the  progress  in  science,  machinery,  quick  transport 
and  inter-communication  by  steam  and  electricity, 
and  this  feverish  activity  has  been  still  more  inten- 
sified by  the  opportunities  for  amassing  colossal 
fortunes  during  the  late  war,  until,  at  last,  every 
other  motive  or  principle  has  been  smothered  by 
the  one  of  acquiring  wealth ;  and,  natural  enough, 
greed  for  gain  ended  in  universal  disloyalty  and 
distrust,  and  a  final  stand-still  of  trade.  This  pause 
brings  us  to  our  senses. 

The  activities  of  the  nation  are  too  fully  aroused 
to  be  repressed  ;  they  must  be  directed  into  a  chan- 
nel as  noble  and  generous  as  the  former  was  ignoble 
and  selfish.  The  nation  must  be  made  alive  to  the 
peril  to  which  universal  selfishness  exposes  its  past 
greatness. 

Or  are  we  alarmists  ?  and  is  the  silent  potency 
of  the  three  R's  sufficient  to  save  the  world  with- 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  461 

out  the  concurrence  of  other  social  agencies  ?  We 
hardly  think  so.  Popular  Education  has  been  fos- 
tered everywhere  the  last  hundred  years,  still  the 
statistics  of  the  steady  increase  of  illegitimate 
births  and  abandoned  children  the  world  over, 
would  fill  a  moderate  volume.  Offenses  in  France 
have  increased  from  110,593  in  1846,  to  171,351  in 
1853.  The  liberal  professions,  composing  2.2  per 
cent,  of  the  entire  population,  form  4  per  cent,  of 
the  criminals  of  France.  Whilst  the  farmers,  who 
form  53  percent,  of  the  entire  population,  commit 
but  30  per  cent,  of  the  crimes,  showing  at  once  the 
decided  influence  of  work,  home  and  a  competency, 
and  the  doubtful  bearing  of  Education  on  crime. 

In  England  offenses  rose  from  75,859,  or  4  in 
1,000,  in  1857,  to  105,310,  or  5  in  1,000,  in  1865. 
Murders  and  attempts  at  murder  in  France  num- 
bered in  1830-1834  931,  and  increased  gradually  to 
1,850  in  1855-1859. 

Enough  has  been  said  on  the  score  of  this  uni- 
versally-spread fiction  or  swindle  of  what  is  in  the 
clap-trap  of  the  day  styled  Education.  Our  present 
Education,  by  getting  up  a  false  pride  discouraging 
manual  labor  and  putting  cunning  in  the  place  of 
physical  and  creative  effort,  aids  the  progress  of 
crime. 

We  talk  about  pauperism  in  Europe,  and  shqt 
our  eyes  to  the  extent  of  the  evil  in  our  own  midst. 


462  The  Scourges  of  Hionanity. 

Massachusetts,  willing  to  probe  the  evil,  gives  us 
reliable  statistics.  It  has  with  a  population  of 
1,651,912,  4,342  inmates  in  its  poorhouses,  and 
supports  partially  65,988  outside  poor.  It  counted 
in  1876,  148,933  tramps!  and  making  full  allow- 
ances for  duplications,  it  has,  at  least,  5,000  of 
this  dangerous  element.  Massachusetts  has  six 
or  seven  large  State  institutions,  beside  342  town 
and  city  poorhouses,  and  thousands  of  private 
families  in  which,  at  public  expense,  individuals 
are  maintained  ;  and  the  poor  cause  to  the  State 
and  private  charities  an  annual  outlay  of  $4,500,- 
000.  The  convicts  number  4,340.  Whilst  the  poor 
in  England,  1,037,360,  are  i  in  23  of  the  general 
population,  and  the  convicts,  28,756,  i  in  790,  our 
poor  are  i  in  22  of  population,  and  our  criminals 
I  in  380. 

There  were  commitments  in  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts in 

1871-2 160 

1872-3 174 

1873-4 246 

In  1865  there  were  in  the  common  prisons  of 
the  State  10,000  individuals,  and  481  convicts  in 
the  State  prison.  In  1875,  20,000  were  detained 
in  the  common  prisons,  and  852  were  in  the  State 
prison.  Hardly  a  State  or  country,  says  the  State 
Report    before    us,    in    the    civilized   world,  where 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  463 

atrocious  and  flagrant  crimes  are  so  common  as  in 
educated  Massachusetts.  Of  415  convicts  sen- 
tenced to  the  Charlestown  State  prison  in  1874 
and  1875,  53  per  cent,  are  born  in  Massachusetts, 
and  25  per  cent,  of  all  the  convicts  of  1873  came 
from  its  reformatories.  Only  1 1  per  cent,  of  the 
convicts  of  1876  were  illiterate,  which,  therefore, 
was  not  the  cause  of  their  criminality.  One  of  every 
364  natives  of  Massachusetts  is  a  pauper,  and  i  in 
every  546  a  convict  ;  whilst  i  in  every  348  foreign 
born  is  a  pauper,  and  i  in  every  252  is  a  criminal. 
But  here  again  we  must  direct  the  attention  of  the 
reader  to  the  absurdity  of  all  our  statistics  of  pau- 
perism. We  are  informed  one  of  so  many  natives 
or  foreigners  is  a  pauper ;  in  other  words,  is  an  in- 
sane, an  idiot,  a  deserted  woman,  an  orphan,  of 
infirm  mind,  sick,  a  cripple,  an  old  man,  or  a  widow 
— a  most  meaningless  assertion  indeed. 

According  to  a  more  just  and  simple  classifica- 
tion—  we  shall  soon  make  clearer — we  should  say 
I  in  100  of  the  population  of  Massachusetts  is  a 
defective ;  i  in  20  is  partially  depending  and  poor, 
I  in  10  is  struggling  against  poverty,  and  i  in  5  is 
managing  closely. 

This  is  rather  gloomy,  but  is  a  fact  worth  while 
knowing.     Massachusetts  has  : 

Blind 2,512 

Deaf 7,241 


464  The  Scourges  of  Humanity. 

Dumb 129 

Deaf-mutes 654 

Idiots 1,340 

Insane 3>637 


Total 16,513 

In  359  cases  out  of  420  cases  of  idiots,  one  or 
both  parents  departed  from  the  normal  condition 
of  health. 

Epileptics,  paralytics,  cripples,  feeble-minded  and 
the  like  classes,  will  swell  this  sum  to  25,000;  and 
what  must  be  the  nature  of  the  tree  that  bears 
the  like  fruits  in  such  abundance? 

The  following  table  shows  the  steady  increase  of 

pauperism  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts.  Vagrants 

were  relieved  in 

1873 45.653  times. 

1674 98,236 

1875 137.308 

1876 148,936 

A  glance  at  the  population  of  the  poorhouses 
of  the  State  of  New  York  will  clearly  prove  our 
position,  that  widespread  pauperism  is  evidence 
of  physical  deterioration,  which  has  to  be  met  by 
means  both  universal  and  efficient. 

New  York  contained  in  its  poorhouses  in  1876 

2,030  homeless  children.  29  deaf-mutes. 

278         "         women.  4.047  insane. 

2,081  old  and  destitute.  580  idiots. 

795  permanently  diseased.  268  epileptics. 

463  temporarily  diseased.  322  paralytics. 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  465 

240  crippled.  394  feeble-minded. 

17  deformed.  1^1  vagrant  and  idle. 

303  blind. 

Total 12,614. 

The  Report  on  Pauperism,  by  Charles  S.  Hoyt, 
Esq.,  throws  further  Hght  on  this  subject,  by  show- 
ing that  4,273  of  this  number  had  each  pauper  rela- 
tives— some  as  far  back  as  three  generations.  The 
number  of  pauper  relatives  of  the  paupers  exam- 
ined into  amounted  to  14,901  ;  4,968  of  these  rela- 
tives were  known  as  insane,  844  were  idiots  and 
8,863  inebriates. 

What  a  widespread  deterioration  this  condition 
indicates,  and  how  vast  must  be  the  means  that 
shall  victoriously  counteract  it. 

We  often  witness  with  indifference  the  develop- 
ment of  a  morbid  formation,  relying  upon  the 
remedial  power  of  the  means  at  our  command, 
which,  in  truth,  are  almost  invariably  impotent. 

We  try  to  study  the  problem  of  pauperism  ;  but 
systematization  is  the  first  requisite  to  get  at  the 
nature  of  things,  and  we  lump  together  under  pau- 
perism, a  name  that  means  social  leprosy,  a  pest 
and  every  other  thing  that  is  loathsome — the  poor 
insane,  the  idiot  boy,  the  orphan,  the  widow,  the 
sick  and  the  man  of  a  hundred  years. 

These  classes  are  all  free  from  personal  guilt,  and 
our  dealing  in  such  a  bungling  manner  makes  the 
solution  of  the  social  problem  impossible,  and  is  as 


466  The  Scourges  of  Humanity. 

much  an  insult  to  our  own  good  sense  as  to  hu- 
manity. The  plain  state  of  the  case  is,  the  wrecks 
in  the  poorhouses  of  Massachusetts,  New  York  or 
any  other  State  or  country,  are  the  flower  and  friiit ; 
the  outside  helpless  poor — call  them  tramps,  va- 
grants or  what  you  please — are  the  branch,  and  the 
struggling  millions,  who  have  not  yet  given  up  all 
hope,  are  the  veritable  tree  sending  forth  those 
branches  bearing  the  bitter  fruit. 

We  must  stop  paying  attention  to  the  branches 
and  attend  to  the  roots  of  the  tree.  The  hundred 
thousand  outside  the  poorhouse  must  themselves 
be  radically  diseased,  to  yield  the  ten  thousand 
physically  and  mentally  ruined  inmates  of  our 
poorhouses,  and  the  millions — let  us  not  be  unjust 
— they  mean  as  nearly  right  as  they  know.  We 
are  republicans;  let  us  be  just  toward  the  masses, 
the  people,  the  hope  of  the  nation  and  of  the 
future  ;  perhaps  the  whole  Education  we  give  them 
is  the  wrong  one,  and  we  dare  say  this  is  fully  half 
of  the  trouble. 

An  increased  mortality  rate  may  be  the  result  of 
a  food  supply  suddenly  cut  short  by  a  failure  of 
crops  or  a  financial  crisis.  An  increase  in  the  rate 
of  insanity  is  evidence  of  a  deep  degeneracy,  the 
■work  of  a  long  series  of  deteriorating  causes.  It 
is  for  this  reason  that  insanity  especially  must  oc- 
cupy the  attention  of  the  social  student. 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  467 

Dr.  Charles  A.  Lee  said  before  the  Social  Science 
Association  :  "  Statistics  abundantly  show  that  both 
in  this  country  and  in  Great  Britain  there  is  a  pro- 
gressively increasing  ratio  of  lunatics  to  the  whole 
population,  and  the  estimate  of  45  per  cent,  in- 
crease here,  as  in  England,  in  the  last  ten  years  is 
very  probable.  We  know  that  there  is  an  enor- 
mous and  constantly  increasing  accumulation  of 
chronic  lunacy  in  every  State  in  the  Union,  and 
that  in  the  States  which  have  erected  the  most  and 
largest  asylums,  as  New  York,  the  number  of  in- 
sane in  the  poorhouses  has  not  diminished,  and  is 
constantly  increasing.  Especially  is  insanity  in- 
creasing in  the  United  States  among  the  middle 
and  lower  classes." 

Of  course,  the  increase  of  the  45  per  cent,  of  in- 
sanity in  so  short  a  period  is  partly  due  to  the 
preservation  of  the  lives  of  the  insane  under  their 
improved  treatment  ;  still  there  is  left  a  positively 
increased  ratio  of  insanity  sufficient  to  stagger  the 
thoughtful  student  of  social  phenomena. 

But  whoever  will  read  the  reports  of  the  Boards 
of  Charities  of  the  various  States  in  the  Union, 
and  take  into  consideration  the  increasing  numbers 
of  the  inmates  of  the  poorhouses  and  the  nature 
and  composition  of  the  latter,  will  of  necessity 
come  to  the  conclusion  of  Dr.  Lee. 

What  wonder  that  the  insane  are  in  the  most  hu- 


468  The  Scourges  tf  Humanity. 

mane  States  penned  up  in  cages  like  wild  beasts, 
only  kept  less  clean.  Are  they  not,  according  to 
our  most  stupid  and  inhuman  nomenclature,  pau- 
pers ?  And  yet  Dr.  Edward  Jarvis,  like  his  prede- 
cessor, the  great  Pinel,  says  :  "  Most  of  these  unfor- 
tunates need  no  double  doors,  no  bolts,  no  locks,  but 
confidence  and  the  encouragement  of  their  own  self- 
respect,  the  most  important  means  of  restoration." 
The  constantly  diminishing  yearly  increase  of 
population  is  another  evidence  either  of  physical 
deterioration  or  moral  depravity.  So,  for  instance, 
was  the  annual  increase  of  population  in  Prussia : 

1817-1828 1.71  per  cent. 

1828-1840 1.27 

1846-1855 0.86 

The  annual  increase  of  population  in  England 
■was,  in 

1821-1831  .     1.46  per  cent.         1841-1851  .     1.35  per  cent. 
1831-1841  .     1.46       "  1851-1861  .     1. 19       " 

In  France  the  increase  of  population  was,  in 

1821-1831  .     0.67  per  cent.         1841-1851   .     0.44  per  cent. 
1831-1841   .     0.50       "  1851-1861   .     0.18 

And  when  we  study  our  own  country,  the  steady 
decline  of  the  natural  increase  indicates  a  lament- 
able deterioration.     The  annual  increase  was,  in 

1790-1800  .     2.89  pel  cent.         1820-1830  .     2.64  per  cent. 
1800-1810  .     2.83        "  1830-1840  .     2.52 

1810-1820  .     2.74       "  1840-1850  .     2.39       " 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  469 

According  to  Dr.  Allen's  statement  before  the 
Social  Science  Association,  10  per  cent,  of  the  mar- 
riages of  Americans  are  childless ;  and  whilst  i 
birth  upon  30  of  population  is  the  natural  ratio,  the 
ratio  of  births  of  Massachasetts'  mothers  is  i  in  60. 

We  cannot  deteriorate  without  losing  vitality 
and  strength  as  a  nation,  and  losing  the  chance  of 
giving  birth  to  thinkers  and  organizers  and  leaders 
in  national  greatness  and  goodness. 

But  the  great  misery  of  the  masses  is  the  plain- 
est and  most  irrefutable  proof  of  their  deteriorating 
condition. 

The  following  official  items  furnished  by  E.  Crap- 
sey,  Esq.,  are  well  worth  considering.  There  were 
in  1870  in 

Bellevue  Hospital  and  Charity  Hospital  17,190  patients. 

Hospital  for  Contagious  Diseases      .     .  6,165  " 
Bureau  of  Relief  prescribed  for  outdoor 

poor        16,850  " 

The  almshouse  poor 4.315  " 

Relieved  by  private  agencies    ....  50,000  " 

Dependent  upon  public  charities     .     .  61,971  " 

Inmates  of  prisons  and  reformatories  .  71,849  " 

Total 228,340        " 

Reducing  this  number  on  account  of  duplications 
to  150,000  persons,  what  an  army  of  dependents 
and  what  a  problem  for  solution  ! 

There  is  not  a  block  of  tenement  houses  where 


470  The  Scourges  of  Humanity. 

mothers  may  not  be  found  putting  the  morsel  of 
bread  they  covet  into  the  hungry  mouths  of  cry- 
ing children  ;  where  strong  men  do  not  starve  that 
the  old  people  may  be  supported.  Widows  are 
chummed  together,  who  are  living  illustrations  of 
a  sisterly  spirit  ;  they  have  for  years  worked  and 
starved  together ;  the  strongest  bank  in  the  city 
may  break,  but  their  honor  and  honesty,  so  often 
tried,  make  them  trusted  for  their  rent  during  the 
winter  months,  when,  also,  their  most  modest  furni- 
ture travels  to  the  pawnbroker,  to  come  back  in  the 
summer  season  and  greet  the  presence  of  these,  God's 
own  dear  children,  who  starve  the  year  through 
with  a  never-faltering  spirit.  Does  any  one  think 
that  such  stories,  rising  into  the  hearing  of  the 
Almighty  Father,  do  not  avenge  the  poor  by 
confounding  all  in  one  great  destruction,  in  order 
to  assert,  in  the  inexorable  ways  of  Providence,  the 
solidarity  of  the  race,  coldly  denied  by  us  in  the 
cruel  treatment  of  a  brother? 

The  steady  and  stubborn  growth  of  pauperism 
proves  all  present  attempts  at  preventing  it  rather 
efforts  at  mitigating  it,  an  enterprise  laudable,  but 
thankless,  like  carrying  water  from  the  sea  in  a 
sieve,  as  the  millions  brought  up  and  living  as  they 
are,  grind  out  paupers  by  the  hundred  thousand, 
and  swallow  up  all  private  and  public  means,  ren- 
dering all  our  efforts  nugatory. 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  471 

We  do  not  indulge  in  vagaries,  and  do  not  stand 
alone  in  what  we  blame  or  in  what  we  advance. 
We  insist  upon  work  as  well  as  study,  and  condemn 
the  one-sided  mental  Education  of  the  day,  which 
ruins  both  the  body  as  well  as  the  mind,  leading  to 
want  and  misery. 

The  effects  of  our  almost  exclusive  attention  to 
study  may  be  partly  illustrated  by  the  following 
facts.  Blindness  is  a  great  source  of  loss  of  oppor- 
tunity of  self-support.  The  number  of  the  blind 
in  the  United  States  is  25,000  and  over.  Con- 
genital blindness  is  but  as  i  in  10  compared  to  the 
whole  class.  Whatever  weakens  the  eyes  exposes 
them  to  succumb  to  the  effects  of  disease  or  exter- 
nal injury,  and  the  short-sightedness  or  weakened 
condition  of  the  eyes,  due  to  over  application  to 
study,  has  been  fully  established,  and  ranges  from 
5  per  cent,  in  village  schools,  to  not  less  than  68 
per  cent,  in  our  highest  institutions. 

Of  731  collegiate  scholars  296,  or  40  per  cent.,  suf- 
fered frequently  headache.  Of  3,564  scholars  of 
pubhc  schools,  974,  or  27.3  per  cent.,  suffered  more 
or  less  headache.  In  the  highest  class  of  a  college 
not  less  than  80  per  cent,  were  found  sufferers  from 
headache.  Bleeding  from  the  nose  was  found  in  20 
per  cent.  Spinal  diseases  were  met  with  in  20  per 
cent.,  and  of  these  84-90  per  cent,  were  females. 

One  hundred  and  forty-six  physicians  of  Massa- 


472  The  Scourges  of  Humanity. 

chusetts  have  declared  that  our  system  of  Educa- 
tion promotes  consumption,  and  the  writer  in  the 
Massachusetts  Report  adds  to  this  testimony,  "  If 
this  be  not  worthy  of  serious  thought  by  our  people 
I  know  of  no  question  that  can  be." 

"  The  state,"  says  the  School  Commissioner  of 
Ohio,  "  needs,  for  its  material  prosperity,  a  race  of 
strong  and  healthy  men  and  women.  Widespread 
violations  of  hygienic  laws  as  fostered  by  a  vicious 
system  of  Education  cannot  be  overlooked  by  the 
state." 

"  Education  lays  the  foundation  o^  a  large  part 
of  the  causes  of  mental  disorders,"  says  Dr.  Jarvis. 

"  Insanity  is  die  price  of  an  imperfect  civilization 
and  an  incomplete  Education,"  says  Rev.  J.  S.  Good- 
man, School  Superintendent  in  the  State  of  Michigan. 

"  Our  young  men  have  a  great  indisposition  to 
physical  labor.  We  belifgve  in  that  kind  of  com- 
pulsory Education  that  will  fit  a  man  for  work  and 
self-support.  Of  220  convicts,  in  1875,  in  Massa- 
chusetts, 177  were  without  a  trade.  A  workman 
who  labors  and  pays  his  way,  though  he  is  unable 
to  read  and  write,  is  a  better  member  of  society 
than  men  educated  who  will  not,  or  know  not,  how 
to  earn  their  bread.  We  want  more  of  the  gospel 
of  work."  These  words  of  Mr.  Wright,  the  chief 
of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  of  Massachusetts,  deserve 
consideration. 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  473 

Richard  Vaux,  in  an  able  article  on  crime  in  the 
State  Report  of  Pennsylvania,  says :  "  A  far  larger 
number  of  convicts  have  attended  school  than  who 
never  went  to  schools.  Does,  perhaps,  the  associ- 
ation of  youths  in  school  create  an  influence  which 
leads  to  depreciate  labor?  This  certainly  would 
have  to  be  considered." 

Nothing  but  the  joining  of  industrial  work  with 
study  secures  the  proper  equilibrium  between 
mental  and  physical  action,  and  endows  the  future 
citizen  with  the  power  of  providing  honestly  and 
honorably  for  himself  and  for  those  who  have  a 
claim  upon  his  support.  We  insist,  therefore,  upon 
a  more  material  Education,  but  we  lay  equal  stress 
upon  a  more  spiritual  one  than  the  present,  and 
one  founded  upon  the  physical,  moral,  and  in- 
dustrial relations  and  nature  of  man. 

The  neglect  of  the  physical  and  moral  Education 
in  our  schools,  and  the  perversion  of  the  passions 
this  double  neglect  leads  to,  are  a  great  cause  of 
race  deterioration.  Fashion,  appearances  and 
sham  in  Education,  leaving  the  heart  and  the  higher 
reason  empty,  take  the  place  of  the  more  practical 
culture  of  the  will,  good  sense,  and  human  kindness. 
The  state,  expending  millions  out  of  the  public 
treasury,  has  a  right  to  insist  upon  an  Education 
that  instills  in  the  individual,  educated  by  the  con- 
tributions of  all,  kindliness  toward  all. .    The  state 


474  ^'^^^  Scourges  of  Humanity. 

and  the  government  are  no  more  interested  in  the 
scholarly  accomplishments  of  the  citizen  than  in  his 
religious  faith ;  in  the  eye  of  the  law  actions  alone 
have  an  existence,  and  are  culpableor  meritorious, 
and  hence  for  action  the  public  school  must  train 
us,  that  we  may  live  a  life  useful  for  the  state  and 
for  ourself. 

When  a  German  university  celebrity,  like  Pro- 
fessor Ekhart,  and  a  Professor  Stuart,  of  Cambridge 
University,  England,  treat  labor  schools  as  a  prime 
necessity  of  our  present  civilization,  and  such 
schools  do  prove  a  success,  in  France,  Germany, 
Belgium,  Holland,  Denmark,  Sweden,  Austria, 
Italy  and  Switzerland,  none  is  justified  in  saying, 
that  however  well  such  institutions  may  look  on 
paper  they  are  not  reducible  to  practice.  Reading 
questions  from  text-books,  and  seeing  to  it  that 
the  answers  be  exactly  as  printed,  may  be  less 
troublesome  in  execution,  still  the  world  has  got 
tired  of  words,  and  Education  too  must  adval^,/ 
from  words  to  work. 

If  men  make  leadership  in  the  highest  depart- 
ment of  human  life  their  business,  let  them  be 
trained  for  it  in  institutions  of  the  severest  mental 
discipline.  But  we  do  not  want  schools  dabbling 
just  enough  in  Latin  and  Greek  to  spoil  a  boy 
born  for  the  plow  or  the  shop,  without  fittiwg  him 
for  anything  else. 


The  Scourges  of  Hmnanity.  475 

Is  the  demand  for  a  moral  basis  of  Education, 
and  the  preservation  of  the  race  an  insanity?  Is 
the  enlarging  of  the  individual  consciousness  to 
a  universal  consciousness  that  identifies  itself  with 
all  mankind,  past  and  present,  not  the  essential 
nature  of  human  culture,  and  if  we  are  to  love 
Him  whom  we  have  never  seen,  are  we  mad  for 
making  the  demand  on  Education  to  train  man  up 
for  the  love  of  a  brother  whom  he  has  seen  ? 

The  realism  of  the  Greeks  must  unite  in  our 
Education  with  the  moral  inspiration  of  the  East ; 
still,  the  latter  must  form  the  basis  of  the  entire 
fabric  of  Education  ;  for  to  confess  our  weakness, 
we  give  preference  to  the  poor,  the  central  figure 
in  the  civilization  of  Judea;  for  the  element  of 
beauty  in  the  Greek  world  may  exercise  our  admi- 
ration ;  the  poor  call  forth  our  benevolence. 

Education  among  the  ancients  was  the  business 
of  slaves ;  in  the  middle  ages  it  was  left  to  the 
.nurch  ;  in  our  day  it  is  a  trade.  But  the  Educa- 
tion of  the  race  must  become  a  religion,  and  the 
state  and  the  citizen  must  give  it  their  best 
thoughts  and  warmest  support. 

We  especially  insist  upon  orderly  homes,  which 
are  for  men  and  women  what  schools  are  for  chil- 
dren. For  we  hold  that  the  Education  the  family 
provides  for  all  through  life  is  of  a  higher  order 
than    that   of   the    school,  which    is    but    partially 


4/6  The  Scourges  of  Humanity. 

provided  during  a  comparatively  brief  period  of 
life. 

Howe,  labor,  property,  health,  the  fajnily  and  Edji- 
catioii  are  secured  to  the  masses,  with  the  opportunity 
of  acquiring  suburban  dwellings,  and  with  these  ele- 
ments of  civilization  the  peace  of  society  and  the  sta- 
bility of  the  govcrnme?it  are  guaranteed. 

The  effects  of  crowding  in  large  towns,  says 
Charles  Bray,  are  ill  health,  misery,  drunkenness 
and  degradation.  Ups  and  downs  natural  to  com- 
merce, make  the  operative  wreckless.  Waste  and 
lowest  licentiousness,  or  starvation  are  the  alter- 
native.^ The  disadvantages  of  the  factory  system 
may  be  avoided  by  uniting  it  with  the  culture  of  a 
garden  patch,  which  a  man  can  tend  when  he  can- 
not sell  his  time  to  better  advantage  in  the  labor 
market. 

Our  industrial  system,  says  Sir  A.  Alison,  brings 
to-day  to  the  masses  weakness  and  debasement, 
national  grandeur  and  private  degradation.  Where- 
over,  as  in  the  Jura,  or  the  Val  d'Arno,  manufactur- 
ing employment  is  coupled  with  separate  dwellings 
and  rural  residence,  and  the  laborer  can  safely  base 
his  calculations  upon  something  that  is  certain, 
there  is  industry  and  frugality,  and  beautiful  little 
properties  gratify  the  traveller  in  those  delightful 
regions.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  not  to  be 
found  among  civilization  a  more  dissolute  or  reck,- 


The  Scourges  of  Humanity.  477. 

less  race  than  the  silk  weavers  of  Lyons  or  Spital- 
fields,  the  cotton  manufacturers  of  Rouen  or  Man- 
chester, or  the  muslin  operatives  of  Glasgow  or 
Paisley. 

The  national  commerce  bought  at  the  price  of 
the  strength,  health  and  moral  soundness  of  the 
masses  becomes  the  nation's  curse.  The  man  who 
could  discover  a  mode  of  combining  manufacturing 
skill  with  isolated  labor  and  country  residence,  would 
do  a  greater  service  to  humanity  than  the  whole  race 
of  ph  ilosophers. 

Dr.  Elijah  Harris  stated  most  forcibly,  before  the 
committee  on  crime,  appointed  by  the  Legislature 
of  New  York,  that  crime  in  the  different  city  wards 
was  always  in  proportion  to  crowding.  Sing  Sing, 
the  House  of  Refuge  and  the  like  State  institutions 
trace  their  criminal  inmates  and  juvenile  offenders 
to  the  worst  tenement  houses.  Nothing  but  health- 
ful domiciles  secured  by  a  stringent  sanitary  legis- 
lation, can  prevent  wasting  disease,  pauperism  and 
crime.  Overcrowding,  in  dark  and  filthy  tene- 
ments, wipes  out  all  moral  distinctions.  Mine  and 
thine  lose  their  meaning,  thieving  becomes  natural 
aiicl  crime  habitual,  and  hence  the  increasing  de- 
moralization of  the  densely  packed  populations 
of  growing  cities. 

END   OF   VOLUME   I. 


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